


The Dark One's Desire

by chipperdyke



Series: The Light and the Dark [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: But maybe they're in love, Dubious Consent, F/F, Fluff free zoning applies, Magical Pregnancy, No Patience For Slow Burn, Pregnant Evil Queen | Regina Mills, Sexual Slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-27
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-10-11 16:47:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 27
Words: 58,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10469622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chipperdyke/pseuds/chipperdyke
Summary: Regina was waiting, poised, one hand on the bed frame. She wore an elegant shift, red silk, scanty. Emma threw herself on her knees.Redux on the Dark One's dagger, Merlin, Excalibur, Hades, the Evil Queen, Emma, and of course the Black Fairy.More trigger warnings inside.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No female penis business but a magic dildo may make appearance(s). There is mention of F/M but nothing too painfully explicit. Both OutlawQueen and CaptainSwan exist as canon but aren't ever really a problem. Other than that, attend the Archive warnings, which are real and important and dealt with both delicately and indelicately. I am not pulling any punches but I'm also trying not to mangle the characters too badly. Although many, many main characters die.
> 
> Gratuitously plotty and some smut to keep it fun. Not going to lie there's some pregnancy kink/fetish elements.
> 
> Canon divergent from S5 E2

_Emma Swan._

The voice was syrupy but stiff, unmistakable. Each syllable was crafted.

Emma stopped pretending to sleep. Anticipation coursed through her veins, but she didn't teleport. It would have been easy to go to her mistress, the owner of her dagger. So easy. It would have only taken a second, and she would be there.

But she shouldn't use the Dark One's magic. Instead she wrapped a cloak around her shoulders and opened the ponderous door to the guest chambers Arthur had given her. She remembered the white dress Regina had worn, just a few hours before. Perfect creamy white against Regina’s dusky skin. Robin’s blood had been on it. Regina had been so distant, and Emma had known that Regina would not call her. She would leave her wanting, as she had in Merlin's tower.

But here Emma was, practically running up the stairs of the tower to the room that Arthur had given _the Savior._ Every moment was longer than the last.

Finally she reached the door. She flung herself at it, wrenching it open.

Regina was waiting, poised, one hand on the bed frame. She wore an elegant shift, red silk, scanty. Emma threw herself on her knees. “What do you desire? Please.”

Regina looked at Emma. “You must never tell anyone what happens when we are alone.”

“I would never,” Emma repeated, breathless.

“Stand,” Regina said, and Emma obeyed. Regina studied her face. Every inch of Emma trembled in wanting. Her wetness overflowed, slicking her thighs. “Will you tell me what you're thinking?”

“I want you,” Emma choked out. It could have been more dignified, but she didn't care.

“Since when?”

“Forever." Regina frowned. “Since you had your hands on the dagger,” Emma amended. Her nipples were straining. She wanted to take down Regina’s dress. She wanted their bodies against each other, skin against skin, silk and heavy. She needed Regina gasping.

“And you understand what this means?” Regina asked. “You know why you want me, don't you?”

Emma hesitated. “It is what you have commanded.”

“So this is not really what you want,” Regina said softly.

“I don't know - what I want,” Emma said. It had felt like forever, but she'd finally bridged the gap between them. _Slowly,_ she thought to herself. Maybe Regina was not in the same place as she was. She put her hand on Regina's hip, cupping Regina's neck with the other, and leaned into her.

“Wait,” Regina breathed, and Emma froze in place. “What about Hook?”

“I don't care about him. I don't care about anything but you. I would do anything for you.” Emma paused. She could feel the delicate angle of Regina’s hip bone under her palm. She never thought she could love anything more. “What about Robin?”

“I - I don't know,” Regina said. She leaned into Emma's arms, and their lips met. _Gently,_ Emma thought to herself. Lightning consumed her mouth. Regina was fire to Emma's ice, dark and dangerous, but soft and pliable now. Emma's head spun with intoxication.

“I am your pet,” Emma grated when they stopped for breath. “What do you want to do with me?” Regina looked almost afraid at that, so Emma kept talking. “ _I_ know what I will do to you. I'll do what you've always dreamed.” She hadn't realized it until she said it, and Regina looked away, embarrassed. “How long have you wanted this? Did you want me from the start? Why didn't you use your magic on me? You could have made me your wife. Had me every night.”

“I didn't want to force you,” Regina said.

“That's funny,” Emma said, unsmiling. She backed Regina into the bed, her hands on Regina's hips, and ground herself against her. The movement of their bodies together made her swollen clit rub against her panties, and she gasped.

“I can't control this,” Regina said, watching her face hungrily. “I didn't mean to make this happen.”

“I'm not sorry at all,” Emma growled. “You can just tell me to stop, you know.” She grasped the silk and pulled it up, and Regina let her. She wore nothing at all underneath, except for the sheath along her thigh holding Emma's dagger. “You are so fucking gorgeous, my queen.” She claimed Regina’s lips with hers, and her breasts with her hands. “I'm gonna make you scream my name.”

Regina shook her head, trembling. “Emma, please tell me truthfully what you want.”

“I want you wrapped around my fingers, milking me for your own pleasure.” Emma pinched one nipple and ran her hand down Regina's stomach to tease the neatly trimmed hair.

Regina seemed to come to a decision. Rather than collapsing under Emma's persistent but careful advances, she pushed the cloak off Emma's shoulders. “If I am going to have you, I need you naked,” she said, and Emma stripped obediently. “And come here,” Regina told her, and drew her on top of her in the bed. “Kiss me.” Their lips met, silencing Emma.

Emma reveled in the softness of her hips between Regina's thighs, her hands trailing hotly along the softness of Regina's stomach. She couldn't help but grind her hips into Regina, and Regina reacted by arching, pushing her breasts against Emma's. Their bodies fit more closely together, one of Emma's legs forward, and Regina found her with her wetness. Regina gasped, but did not escalate. She seemed to hesitate, breaking the kiss, and Emma said, “I never pegged you for a vanilla lover.”

“Oh, shut up,” Regina said, and Emma's jaw snapped shut. For the first time, she felt a hint of frustration. Speaking gave her power in this. In truth she was completely powerless. She followed Regina's script. _Make it believable._ That command underwrote the rest. _Want me, and only me, and give yourself to me. Don't give any indication of this to the others._

To make up for the loss of control - the reminder of the loss of volition, the accidental and inevitable violation of her mind - Emma grasped Regina's hips and pressed them down into the mattress. She truly was beautiful, enraptured by Emma, and Emma paused, absorbing the moment. She never thought she would have Regina in a moment of such vulnerability, and she had seen her vulnerable so many times. Naked in more than body. Emma finally knew her secret. And Regina would not always own her soul. What would happen when she was freed of this command?

Emma trailed her hands up Regina's thighs and bent, and Regina shook her head slightly. So Emma instead kissed her stomach, and up, skipping quickly to her breasts. She took a nipple in her mouth, and Regina convulsed, grinding into the air between their bodies. She was gasping, wanting. Emma wondered if she was as wet as Emma was.

Emma’s hand moved back down the trail her lips had left, cupping Regina's wetness. She felt a sudden sense of confusion. What now?

Regina’s hand went over Emma's, guiding her. Emma looked up at Regina, hair tousled, cheeks flushed. Their fingers parted her, became lost and drowning in the want, and then found her clit, and Regina guided her lower.

“Emma, say something.”

“I love this,” Emma said in a rush, unplanned. It was a relief to finally be able to speak again. “I want you."

“You don't have to,” Regina said again.

“There is nothing I want more,” Emma said. “Please.”

“Oh, god, yes,” Regina said. Her body blossomed, and Emma's fingers slipped past her entrance. She was so wet that Emma glided in deep, before hooking her fingers and stroking. Emma knew what her own body liked. This wasn't as difficult as she'd feared. Regina closed her eyes, trembling. Her hand left Emma's, moving instead to her face. “Please,” she whimpered. “Emma.”

“Oh, my queen,” Emma purred. “You feel so good under me. You're so hot and wet. You're helpless. You're mine, now.”

“Yes,” Regina breathed, and her hips shifted. Emma remembered her clit, and moved her hand to brush it, before plunging into her again. Regina's body fluttered around her fingers.

“I’m going to claim you. You'll always feel me inside you. I'll fuck you every night. You can't resist this, can you?”

Regina shook her head, crying out. “Oh, Emma. Come with your fingers in me. Come for me.”

Emma readjusted so that she could rub against Regina's thigh. It took just a few strokes, and she came, hard and explosive, incoherent. Her fingers still hooked inside Regina, and Regina covered her mouth as Emma collapsed on her, her touches languid now, released from that tightness.

“You going to come, baby?” Emma murmured. She kept her hand moving. The motion was rapidly becoming familiar.

Regina wrapped her arms and legs around Emma's body, opening further, and Emma found her body responding, driving her forward, deeply. Wanting again.

“I just want this forever,” Regina managed.

“Then that's what you'll get,” Emma told her. “You'll get me all night. The Dark One doesn't sleep.”

“My darling,” Regina said, tracing the line of Emma's cheek. Emma rotated her wrist, finally finding a way to keep her third finger against Regina's clit. Her hand hurt, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered but Regina.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically I was too lazy to find this myself so I just wrote it. Not a true fan of the show but depending upon reception I may continue writing this. Comments are always welcome!
> 
> Also tell me if there are other fics under this scenario. I want to read more than I want to write!


	2. Chapter 2

The setting sun cast a red glow over them. Emma was standing with her back against the wall, watching Regina hungrily. It wasn't so different from earlier that day, except that rather than Merlin's tower being filled with the characters from fairy tales, each with an idea worse than the last, it was just the two of them. The Evil Queen was bent over a book, pursuing her answer and through it, another chance at redemption. And the Dark One was pinned to the wall, panting with frustration. _If you won't leave, at least stay out of my way._ Satisfaction had ghosted over Regina's face when Emma stepped backward, into the wall.

Emma licked her lips, remembering Regina's nipple in her mouth. Her fingers twitched. “You're so hot when you're thinking,” she said, finding that Regina's command did not extend to her vocalizations. For now. She'd milk it for what it was worth. “I love the crease on your forehead. You're the only one that has a chance at this, since you won't let me fix it. You won't let me free Merlin. Maybe that's because you like me like this. You want me licking your pussy.”

Regina looked up at the door, and then her eyes slid over to meet Emma's.

“You did a great job pretending that you weren't awake all night, didn't you? Were you ever worried Robin would smell me all over you? Do you remember when I tied you up and made you eat me until I came? You gonna do that again tonight?”

Regina stopped pretending she was reading. She sat back, pressing narrow fingers against her eyelids. “I need coffee,” she said.

“Oh, my poor queen. No coffee. Want a quickie, to get your blood pumping again? Do you want my cock in you?”

Regina looked at her. “I really didn't ask you to be this…”

“I'm always turned on. You didn't know what Hook was getting.” Emma paused. It wasn't really true. Regina's command had made her into a wet mess. But Regina was rebuffing her, and it frustrated her to no end. “Maybe I'll go to him tonight instead,” she taunted. Regina's eyes tightened. “Does that make you jealous? I'll imagine he's you. Does that make it better?” It felt like there was nothing left of the Emma that had loved Killian.

“Please, stop.” Emma closed her mouth, and Regina approached. Emma arched her back. Her hands were flat against the wall at her sides. Regina's magic, or her command? They felt the same. “What if someone hears you?”

“Put a silencing spell on the tower.”

Regina put her hand behind Emma's neck and studied her face. “Do you like what you see?” Emma asked. Regina was giving in.

“Emma, I -” Regina stopped.

“I can't stop imagining you on your back on that table. If you wanted, I'd lay you out in front of everyone. I want them to know that you own me. Every inch of me. My body is yours, and I am bursting to feed your need with my desire. All you want from me is sex.” Emma panted, watching Regina's lips. She couldn't move, or she'd be kissing Regina. “You just want me to fuck you and come in you. Do you remember how many times I came last night? If you asked right now, I could come just looking at you. You're so perfect.”

Regina looked suddenly sad. They disappeared in a puff of purple smoke, reappearing in Regina's room. Regina was in a white cotton nightie. She put her hands on Emma, and an identical nightshirt replaced Emma's clothing. Regina drew her into her bed, folding Emma's arms around her. She didn't say anything, and Emma plastered her body against Regina's back. The command was silent. _Hold me._

So Emma held her, watching Regina as she finally closed her eyes and slept. This was the first time that Regina slept since she had her hand on Emma's dagger, and the power of her command faded a little. Or was it the opposition of her other command against the first one? The tension in Emma's belly eased. Sweetness replaced it. _Want me, and only me._ Emma closed her eyes and gave herself over to it.

* * *

The first indication of Regina's dream was a faint gasp. Emma shifted her left hand where it rested on Regina's stomach to her hip, attentive. The sky was lightening.

And Rumplestiltskin appeared, crouched on the bench at the window. “She still sleeps. Her command holds you here. What could you have done tonight, if you hadn't been trapped against her body?” Emma's soul flared. She _was_ impatient. From dusk to dawn was a long time to be still.

 _Go away,_ she thought fiercely.

“I will never go away. I am you. I saw all the things she made you do. You'll never forget the iron grip of her command. You'll always remember the unspeakable things she desired of you. You will never look at her the same way again.”

_Maybe I don't want to forget._

“That is just the command talking. I should know. The things our masters have made us do, through all the ages of slavery…” He drifted off, and Emma saw flashes of them. Eviscerations, slow torture, lightning deaths. Kingdoms brought to riot, brought to destruction. And the Dark One walked in their ruins. Cities that were once home, hundreds of years past, now rotting and rubble. Hundreds of masters, each slowly corrupted by the power of command. Lovers destroyed in jealousy, thrones wrested in lust. Petty and grand, and it was so much more satisfying when -

Regina stirred under Emma's hand, gasping softly.

“She dreams of you.” Rumplestiltskin’s eyes were fixated creepily on Regina, who faced him. “Her slave.” Their clothing had shifted up in the night, and Emma moved her legs so that her skin was against Regina's. She ran her hand up Regina's thigh, skipping over the dagger’s sheath, and Regina turned her body up into the touch. Emma's hips ground against her, and Regina's hips moved, too, twitching into the pressure.

“What feels like pleasure now will be violation when you are free. I would know. Her command remains, but you know - the one command that they all remember to make, she has neglected. Despite everything, she still trusts you. Isn't it sweet?”

Rumplestiltskin watched as Emma ran her hand across Regina's hip and then under her panties. “Even though she knows there is nothing left of you.”

 _There is. I am still in command, no matter what you say._ Emma's words were belied by her fingers, which moved through Regina's outer lips to find her wetness. She found Regina's clit easily, practiced, and the stimulation made her own body flare. Emma ground harder with her hips, trapping Regina between her hand and her body, and Regina moaned.

“Softly, now. You mustn't wake her.” Emma slowed, and then shook her head.

Rumplestiltskin persisted. “You will never truly know what you desire until the knife is again yours.”

“I want this,” Emma whispered, and Regina opened her eyes. She seemed surprised to see Emma above her, and with her fingers pressing intimately. “Good morning, beautiful.”

Regina responded by shuddering and rolling her hips, and Emma stroked more deeply, working her wetness. “This morning I'm gonna finally make you come,” Emma informed her. “You're not going to get me inside until I'm ready, and I'm going to make you beg for it.”

“Oh,” Regina gasped, and a flood covered Emma's fingers.

“What I like about this position is you're helpless. You can't touch me, and you won't. And yet,” Emma pulled out and painted her wetness on Regina's stomach, on her breasts, on her nipples. “And yet I can reach every part of you.” She ground her hips on Regina's backside, wondering if Regina would conjure a dildo if she asked her to. It would be a poor way to use the Dark One's magic, wouldn't it?

“You're sore, aren't you? You felt me all day yesterday. And you're gonna feel me all day today. Does it make you ashamed, how easily you fall apart?” Emma plunged her fingers back against Regina's clit, making slow circles, careful to keep constant contact.

“The maid will come soon with bathwater,” Regina said. “You should go.”

Emma scoffed. “Make me,” she challenged. Regina bit her lip and opened her legs, inviting. “No,” Emma scolded. “Remember what I said. I won't fuck you until I'm ready. No matter how wet you are. You're empty and you want to be filled, but I won't give you anything.”

Another flood of wetness met Emma's words. “Oh, Emma. I - we need to get up. I can't.”

“You can't? But you need more of me, don't you? Now you want a quickie. But I won't give it to you. If you leave now, you'll be wet and unsatisfied all day. Is that what you want?”

Regina moaned and shook her head, playing into the fantasy.

“Say it,” Emma growled.

“No, I don't - I don't want that - please, I want you.”

“Want me what?”

“I want you inside, fucking me hard. I want to feel you all day, and I want your wetness all over my body.”

“Oh, yeah?” Emma said. It gave her an idea. She pushed Regina's shoulder down, pushing her onto her back, and mounting her. She pulled off the night shirt, and Regina looked at the door. “If the maid comes in now, she'll see me fucking you. Get that dress off you.” Regina made a face, but with a slight wave of her hand, the dress disappeared. Much easier than trying to extract it from between their bodies. “And give me a dildo. I want to fuck it on your body.”

Regina's eyes were dark, and her fingers grasped Emma's thighs eagerly. “How - how big?”

“So big it wouldn't fit in you,” Emma said, and Regina obliged, conjuring a large blue dildo on her stomach. Emma pushed Regina's hands away and grasped its shaft. “You know I've been wet all night. Feeling you breathe in my arms. It almost made me come when you started moaning.” She fit the dildo at her entrance, and waited. Regina's imagination had not failed them. Emma could already tell that the stretch would burn. Regina watched Emma as she pressed the shaft slightly against her entrance, and slid it back up against her clit.

“What did you dream, my queen?”

“Just - just you,” Regina managed.

Emma worked the head, closing her eyes, and pressed down onto it. When the head was finally inside, she stopped and looked at Regina. “What did you dream? Were we having a picnic in the park? Did you dream of our wedding?” The dildo felt incredible and her body was rippling around it, welcoming the intrusion, wishing for more, but Emma waited for Regina to speak.

“I dreamt of licking your inside, so deep that - Oh, Emma,” Regina cut off as Emma took more of the cock. Regina’s body arched, pushing the dildo slightly into Emma, and her hands found her own breasts. Her eyes were still between Emma's legs. “I made you come, again and again.”

“I'm going to come on top of you,” Emma told her, releasing the dildo and grasping Regina's hands, pulling them off Regina's breasts and placing them in her own hips. “Push me down,” she asked Regina, and Regina eagerly pressed. Emma slid down until it was fully buried inside, faster than she would have taken it, but when she reached the end her clit contacted its base and she shuddered, grinding her hips on Regina's stomach. “Oh, this is so good, baby,” Emma gasped, and her hips pulled away from Regina, before pressing back against her, forcing the dildo deeper. “You're so good. I'm going to ride you -” she cut off as Regina reached up and tweaked her nipple, and the stimulation set her off, earlier than she'd hoped, trembling and rippling waves. “Fuck, yes, yes, baby,” she cursed. Her body convulsed on Regina's. “Yes, fuck me, fuck.”

Regina watched her as she rode out the orgasm, and then she slipped her fingers between the dildo and Emma, finding her clit. Regina's fingers set off another wave of aftershocks, and Emma barely managed to stay upright.

Finally she stopped, and she pulled the dildo out of herself and rubbed against Regina's stomach. Her body ached, and the stimulation directly on her clit felt so good that she kept going. Regina watched her with eyes still dark. “You weren't supposed to touch me,” Emma scolded breathlessly. “I am using your body for my pleasure. You don't get any. You aren't allowed to touch my nipples or my clit.”

Regina nodded, and then Emma let her body down on Regina's and kissed her deeply. “I'm ready to fuck you raw now,” she told Regina. “I need to come inside you.” She turned Regina on her side, the same position they'd been in when Regina slept. She positioned the cock against her thigh, pressing on Regina. “Take me,” she said.

“I - can't,” Regina said breathlessly, rotating her hips against the head of the dildo.

“I can feel how tight your pussy is,” Emma said. “You're so tight and wet and you're going to stretch so much it hurts. And I'm not gonna touch your clit. I'm just gonna fuck you until I come, and you will have to wait for your turn. If you take my cock right now, I might give you a chance to come later.”

Regina pressed onto the head. “I can't, Emma,” she said, and Emma took the soaking dildo in her hand and pumped it, long strokes along Regina's slit, and then she moved to her entrance and thrust hard into her.

Regina cried out as the head entered her. Emma could feel the orgasm in Regina, tantalizing, distant, but closer than it had ever been before. She released the dildo and her fingers went around Regina's hip to her clit, stroking hard. “Come on, baby,” Emma breathed. “Fuck, come for me.”

Regina let out a tight breath and their hips stilled. “Emma,” she said. “I can't. I know it's frustrating.” She pulled off the dildo, holding her breath as it left her, and turned in Emma's arms, holding her closely. “I just want this,” she said, and her lips consumed Emma's.

When the kiss broke, Regina said, “Thank you.” Emma's eyes opened to meet Rumplestiltskin’s, at the window. And then Regina said, “Go to your room,” and Emma disappeared.

* * *

 


	3. Chapter 3

Emma had just begun to wrap the pieces of birch together when the command broke. Regina had put the dagger down. 

Emma sat back in her seat as feeling returned. To want only one thing - it was suffocating, impossible to maintain, oppressive. Rumplestiltskin had shown her a way to keep her hands busy, but Emma had not fully processed what Regina had asked of her - how it had stripped her of all ambition, all imagination, except what it would take to please Regina. 

Why had she finally released Emma? Where was she now? Echoes of the command rang in her chest. _Want me._ Regina had been working with Mary Margaret and David to free Merlin from the tree. _She_ had not lost ambition, though the way she looked at Emma - it was the gaze of someone so far gone that any scrap would suffice, and Emma had given her a feast. How had Emma not seen it before? And how - if Regina had loved her, if she'd wanted to do those things with Emma all along - Emma hadn't seduced her - Regina had not been under a command, to want, but her body had wanted so badly - how had Regina not seen that Emma was oppressed by her command?

And yet the command had been pleasurable. Regina had wanted Emma's happiness as much as she wanted Emma's body. Rumplestiltskin's warning - that she would feel violated, that what had been sex would become rape - it didn't happen. Emma remembered Regina under her hands, around her fingers, and it did not disgust her. 

What now? Emma looked at the pieces of wood between her fingers.

“It is a portal,” Rumplestiltskin told her. “A window to the past. It will show you what trapped Merlin. Come.”

Emma stood and followed him. The dreamcatcher fluttered in the wind of her walking. Finally free, like Emma.

Now they would begin.

* * *

 

Hook was prowling the grounds of Camelot. Emma found him easily.

“Come to my room,” she asked him, and he grinned eagerly, rakishly, and followed her. Easy prey.

“What happened? You seem so.. “ he searched for the word. “Present. You were out of it before. Like you were somewhere else.”

“Oh, I… I have been seeing - things that I would rather not see.”

“What have you been seeing?”

“Never mind,” Emma said, closing the door behind him. They'd been in Camelot for a week, but her room felt unfamiliar. Hook’s eyes lifted, looking at the dreamcatchers hanging from the ceiling in the corner.

“What’ve you been up to?” he asked.

“Killian, I have been meaning to say this, but I haven't found the right words until now.” She paused, waiting for his attention to focus on her. Too easy. “We haven't been working. I'm sorry, but you're not right for me, and you never were.”

He stared at her for a long moment. “I thought we found our happy ending,” he said finally. She watched his face for any hint of tears.

“It wasn't happy for me,” she told him.

“Well, Emma, I -” he stopped. “I am really sorry to hear that. I wish it was different. Is there anything I can do?”

“Nothing,” she told him. His face was composed, almost like he had expected it. Like he didn't care. What machismo. It was annoying.

“Wait, um - is this the Dark One in you? You can still be happy, Emma. I love you even - even like this. I promise.”

She almost rolled her eyes. “Thank you, Killian, but I don't want your love. I never did. It was just a temporary thing.” _Come on, damn it. Cry._

“Oh, well,” he said. “I - let me - I will just go, then.”

“Not so fast,” Emma said, and she conjured ropes to bind him. With a touch of her fingers she snapped him up, and to the forest.

She bound him between two trees.

“Emma, what - what is happening? Dark One?” he looked at her with wide eyes, totally helpless.

She spat on his face. “Shut up. Just - stand here and think about how shitty your life is for a bit. I'm never coming back. Nobody will find you here.”

“Well, hell,” he said, looking at his boots.

She considered searching him for means of escape, and decided on a simpler solution. A few moments later she was gone, leaving a conjured automaton at his bare feet. It watched him with eyes that did not blink, waiting for the tear.

He shivered, looking around him. The midday sun shone through the canopy of trees, but the day was cool. He watched the bot, with its spindly legs and arms, and it stared back at him. He wondered what it saw.

* * *

  
Mary Margaret and David froze in place. The magic was easy to execute, as had the teleportation been to the place that Regina hid the dagger. Regina's eyes met Emma's, and the command gripped Emma again, weakening her knees.

Regina put down the dagger, and the command disappeared. “Emma!” she exclaimed. “What did you do?”

“Arthur put them under - some spell.” Emma looked down at the dreamcatcher in her hand, and Regina's eyes followed hers. “He wants to unite the dagger with Excalibur.” _The dagger wants that, too,_ she thought, but kept it to herself. “Will you help me free Merlin, now?”

“You're not supposed to use magic,” Regina said.

“Not my rule,” Emma said, her lip twitching. She looked at the dagger in its cloth pouch, resting on the tree stump. They stood in silence. _You like me like this._

“Emma, I -” Regina's eyes searched Emma's. “I am so sorry.”

Emma opened her mouth to sigh. “You could have released me at any time, but you didn't. Why did you keep me like that? An animal.”

“I was afraid - of what you would do. What you'd think.”

“Once I could think again?” Regina’s face closed up, stony. Emma opened her mouth to break Regina's heart, and then paused. Regina was so ice-cold. She had never thought Emma loved her. The love in her heart was already broken - had been broken from the start.

And Regina was the Evil Queen. Capturing her to wait for her tear would not be the simple matter that restraining Hook had been. The Dark One's magic was stronger than Regina's, but Regina was smart and fast, and it would be amiss to underestimate her.

It would be smarter to keep her there, on the precipice between love and heartbreak. Emma had the urge to brush her hand against Regina's cheek. She remembered the sweetness, too. How utterly unexpected.

Regina pulled her eyes from Emma's and looked at the dagger. “You asked me to keep it. Do - who do you want to give it to now?”

Emma’s reasons for giving Regina the dagger had not changed. Regina would be a powerful ally, if Emma could keep her. Regina wanted to free Merlin, too. And who better to own Emma's soul, than someone who loved her with such broken longing? Emma realized that Regina was as enraptured as she had been, while under Regina's command. The power of it was heady.

Emma stepped closer, and Regina actually stepped back, keeping her distance.

“Well, do you really think you can't stop yourself?” Emma's heart pounded. _Do you really want me so badly? Is that what your heart has been singing all along?_

“From asking that of you?”

“Yeah,” Emma said.

“Should I try again?”

“Can you?” Emma said. “Will you just remember that -” she paused, searching Regina's face. Remembering all of the filthy words she had fed Regina with. Those words had come more easily than these. “That you want Emma, not the person that I became under that command.”

Regina's face was still, but she studied Emma. Emma had the irrational sense of being prey, although she knew that it was Regina she was trapping. Something about Regina's eyes made her feel like she had already lost.

“Will you tell me -” Regina started, caught herself. “What was my command to you? So that I can keep myself from saying it.”

Emma smirked. “You really didn't know?” Regina shook her head. “It was, 'Want me, and only me, and give yourself to me.’”

“Oh,” Regina said, her voice a little vague. “Let me try.”


	4. Chapter 4

"Moms!” Henry greeted them.

“Hi, honey,” Emma said, surveying the situation. Henry was whirling a sword around clumsily. “What are you doing?”

“Practicing,” he said cheerfully. “Why - what are you up to? Walking around in the forest together?” His eyes darted between them, and a piece clicked into place. Henry knew of Regina's longing. Or Regina knew of Henry's - they both wanted Emma closer than she was. _Holy crap, I'm so blind,_ Emma thought to herself. She had no idea what to do, so she ignored it.

“We are walking back to the castle,” Regina said, with a forced tone. “Emma has discovered a way to communicate with Merlin.”

“Cool,” Henry said. “So you'll be working on that all day, then? Together?”

Regina said, “Why? Do you need our help?”

“No,” Henry said, but his shoulders stooped.

“What happened, Henry?” Emma asked. She approached him. “Why don't you tell us why you're swinging that around?”

“Yes,” Regina agreed. “I told you - a sword is just flimsy metal.”

“Yeah, well,” Henry said, dropping to sit on a nearby log. Emma sat beside him, and Regina stood over them. “I know.” He conjured a blue flame, and it sputtered out. He didn't need to say anything - his magic was far weaker than Regina's, a disappointment that did not track with Emma’s relative magical proficiency. “I kind of think that - well - I met a girl.”

“You met a _girl?_ ” Regina repeated icily.

Emma grinned in delight. “Henry! Who is she? What did you - how did you meet?”

“At the ball. I was - I showed her some music. She liked it. She took me riding today, which was awesome, but I - think maybe I need to be a squire to have a real chance with her.”

“Don't be silly, Henry,” Emma said. “You just have to be yourself. It sounds like she already likes you. You're exotic, a visitor from another land!”

Henry nodded slowly, and then looked up at Regina, not fully trusting Emma's advice.

“Listen to your mother, Henry. I'm sure - I'm sure that she will be enchanted by you.” Regina's tone was still stiff. “We need to talk,” she finished.

“Ugh, mom,” Henry said, burying his face in his hands. “We've literally had that talk every year for the past five years.”

Emma couldn't help but laugh at his embarrassment. “Yeah, leave him alone, mom,” she joked. “Everyone knows that nine year olds don't need birth control.”

Henry collapsed further, and Regina said, “Fifteen, Emma."

"No, I mean - five years ago would make him -"

"Ten." Regina sighed. "Well, if you remember - I suppose you're right.” Her lips were a thin line.

“Loosen up,” Emma told her, and rubbed Henry's back. "Ignore her. Tell me more about your girl. What's her name?”

“Violet,” Henry mumbled.

“Are you going to ask her on a date?”

Henry dropped his hands and looked at Emma. “Maybe I will,” he said, a slight smile flickering across his face. “Tonight.”

“Amazing,” Emma said. _Tonight._

* * *

 The castle was just a short distance away. Regina insisted upon using the dreamcatcher herself, against Merlin's tree, but it just replayed the scene it had shown Emma.

So they went to Merlin's tower. “How will we find a tear shed for true love?” Regina wondered.

“I'm sure those are being shed all the time,” Emma said to her, propping herself against the table. Regina looked gorgeous. Red suited her. Emma found herself watching Regina's movements.

Regina said, “The trick is catching them.”

“Right.” Emma checked on Hook. He was shivering, small in the forest. No tears yet. “We could free Charming and Snow, take Charming’s heart, and tell him to break it off with her and take the baby.”

Regina stared at her.

“We'd put the heart back in and tell them what happened afterward. It would be fine. Nobody worse for the wear, and Merlin freed.”

Regina was still staring.

“I'm joking,” Emma said finally. “It was just a joke.”

“What is it like, to be a Dark One?” Regina asked softly. “Did you genuinely think that was the answer?”

Emma shrugged. So it _wasn't_ the answer, then? She couldn't tell why.

“Has it stripped you of morality, or feeling? Or is it just power that has changed you?”

“Regina, I don't think - I don't think there's a point in a long discussion about what being a Dark One means. I trust you. You tell me something's a bad idea and I'm being an idiot, and I won't do it. Does that work for you?”

Regina scoffed. “I am not the best moral compass. Isn't that why you took this burden from me? Better to follow someone else's advice.”

“Well, you're the one I've got,” Emma said.

“We need Charming and Snow back,” Regina said dryly.

And Robin? Where was he? Still sulking about Regina letting Zelena go? “Yep,” Emma agreed. “First step, Merlin.”

“Indeed,” Regina said, and bent to Merlin's spellbook.

An idea was forming in Emma's mind. She checked back on Hook, and then she walked to Regina, standing behind her, and looked at the page she was studying. Her breast pressed against Regina's back, and then Emma put her hand on Regina's as if to guide it.

The command slapped Emma like ton of bricks. _Feel this. Take me and love me._ Emma snapped Regina into a teleportation, spinning her around in the air, casting a glamour on her vision. They appeared against a tree, Regina's legs straddling Emma's hips, her dress up, and Emma's hands were already around her, on the sensitive skin where her thighs turned into her ass. Emma made her panties disappear and the command’s urgency drove her fingers, faster than Emma could find words to speak, into Regina.

It was fortunate that Regina was sopping wet, swollen, ready. Emma felt her own fingers in Regina as if it was her own body being penetrated, and the feeling of it made Emma pause in surprise. _Feel this_ , Regina had asked her.

Regina gasped and ground down, and Emma slipped her third finger against Regina's clit, sending sensation across her own. Regina bucked into the touch, riding Emma, and Emma pressed more closely into her body, to keep her upright, to feed that need. She would come this time. Emma tried to curl her fingers to reach Regina's front wall, and the angle made it impossible. It felt so good, but Emma could stand upright, even being penetrated, even feeling such a rush and torment through Regina's command.

Regina cried out, and then the command lifted, abruptly.

They both stilled. Emma was inside Regina. It felt so good to have Regina wrapped around her. But Regina must know the command was lifted, because she had stopped, too.

Regina had to blame herself for this, or part of the point would be wasted. Emma extracted her fingers, watching Regina close her eyes. She had felt such need, such fulfillment, in Emma’s arms. Emma knew - she had felt it, too, through the command. Emma let Regina down, and Regina smoothed her skirt, avoiding Emma's gaze, looking instead at the dagger on the forest floor, dropped from Regina's sheath. It had been well-secured, buckled in place. Regina must have released it deliberately.

“Will you take it - take it back?” Regina asked breathlessly.

“Why do you keep doing this to me?” Emma asked, as if she was hurt. Pretending pain where there was only satisfaction and power.

She remembered a second later - Hook. She glanced at him. The glamour she had put on Regina must have worked, because Regina ignored him. He was gaping at them, completely naked, cock upright.

Now she'd have to wipe his memory of this part. Oh, well.

Regina seemed to be at a loss for words. “I am so sorry,” she finally said.

“You're using my body,” Emma accused her. Part of it rang true.

“I don't mean to - imply - anything, but - if you didn't touch me, I think it would be easier.”

Emma nodded. “But you still had a command on me. I couldn't help it. I had to touch you.” A complete lie.

Regina's brow furrowed. “What? When, in the tower? Before?” Her forehead smoothed. “Even more reason that I should not hold your dagger any longer.”

“Please, Regina,” Emma said. “You just have to - control yourself.” She was impatient. The longer they waited, the more the shock of seeing Emma fucking Regina would wear off. It wasn't heartbreaking to find out that your girlfriend was being mentally controlled. Another idea, down the drain.

Regina sighed and picked the dagger back up. It balanced on her palm. No command gripped Emma. “Fine. But the moment Merlin is freed, this dagger goes to Snow. She is the rightful carrier of it.”

“Sure,” Emma said. She almost shrugged. Regina was so easy to manipulate. Maybe Emma had overestimated her.

And so far, Regina’d had no ideas of how to collect a tear shed for true love. Emma had to ditch her, and quickly. It was already the afternoon. She had a Violet to find, and a pirate’s memory to wipe. She took Regina's hand and brought them back to the tower. “Can you find more spells for communication or for sniffing out tears?” she asked Regina. “I'm going to bring mom and dad back to Granny's.”

Regina nodded and collapsed into a chair. They'd barely slept last night - Emma had nearly forgotten. “I wonder where Arthur is,” Regina mused. Emma imagined how wet she was in that dress. Was she as frustrated as Emma?

“Dunno,” Emma said. “Hiding.”

“As he should, with his broken sword and his myopic imagination,” Regina said sourly.

“Myopic,” Emma repeated. “Totally.”

* * *

Henry found them in the courtyard, after the sun set. Regina's last-ditch attempt - reliving the moment that her mother killed her first love - was an utter failure, of course. Hook had not cried yet, although he had talked a lot, irritating, inane sounds that Emma was glad to be rid of.

Emma’s heart broke a little to see her son there, in such distress. She could feel Violet’s heart pounding in her pocket. “What happened?” Regina asked him.

“I did what you guys said,” he told them. “I was myself. And she - she didn't want anything to do with me.”

Emma kept her face carefully blank as Regina folded him into her arms. She watched for the tear. Regina wiped it from his face using a conjured tissue, and then Arthur and his men burst into the courtyard.

“Give me that dagger,” Arthur snarled, and he drew Excalibur, waving it at them.

“Henry, run,” Regina murmured. Her eyes met Emma's. “You know the spell. I will hold them off.”

“No killing,” Emma reminded her, and Regina nodded, eyes tight. “Be careful.”

Regina conjured a ball of flame in her open palm, a far more effectual version of what Henry had done just a few hours before, and turned to the knights.

Emma raised the tissue in her hand and started the incantation they had developed, remembering the careful movements of Regina's hands as she cast it the first time, unsuccessfully. She followed the ghosts of Regina's hands in the air before her. The spell was only an aid, though. The true power had been harvested from Henry already, from his first heartbreak, the pain of love lost. Emma raised it in her hand and blasted Merlin with it.

The power was immense, far and above what she had ever experienced. It wrapped her body, anchoring her, and tore Merlin completely apart. When the spell was finished, there was nothing left of him but a body, on one knee on the ground.

Merlin looked up at her, and then glanced at Arthur, with Excalibur in hand. And then he, Emma, Regina, and Henry disappeared.


	5. Chapter 5

Merlin smiled grimly at them all. “So, you see, the restored Excalibur is the only way to rid the world of the Dark One. The Dark One was made in the same way that I was made - and can be destroyed by the same weapon I made to destroy myself.”

“Strip you of your powers, you mean?” Regina was harsh, attentive. She looked out of place in the booth at Granny's, with that red dress on, across from Mary Margaret, who wore a frock.

“Exactly,” Merlin said, unblinking. Emma could feel that there was something he was not saying. “And it is just a matter of reclaiming the Flame of Prometheus. For that, I will bring Emma with me to the original location of the flame. What we will need from the rest of you -” and here he met their eyes, Mary Margaret, David, Robin, Belle, and Regina, “Is the rest of Excalibur. I hope that the young Arthur will provide no resistance.”

Regina met Mary Margaret's eyes and then stood, marching to Merlin and standing within a foot of him. In her heels she was as tall as he was. “Absolutely not. You will not take Emma alone.”

Merlin's eyes were soft. “Emma is my equal in power. She will be safe with me, I swear to you.”

“You made Arthur. He is rabid with your charge, and the powder he has - we do not know it, or what it can do.”

“The sand of Avalon,” Merlin acknowledged softly. “Given to him by the Dark One, with the power to fix anything to his liking. I am not proud of what Arthur became, but I could only provide him guidance. I could not dictate his path. I wish that it could have been different. But I have been entirely honest with you.”

Regina glared at him, and Emma could feel the heat of her fury. Emma walked to them and took Regina's arm. “Regina, we have to trust him. The Apprentice said he was the only one who could destroy the darkness.”

Merlin broke their gaze, hinting at something more, but Regina had turned to Emma and didn't notice. Her body crackled, and her eyes flashed.

“Regina, you have to know that I can protect myself.” Emma smiled slightly at her. “I am immortal. Only the blade that you hold has the power to kill me.”

“Well, yes,” Regina said stiffly. “That we know of.” She looked back at Merlin, and then spun on Mary Margaret. “Do you agree with this path?”

Mary Margaret frowned. “I didn't spend a week trying to free Merlin only to challenge his guidance.”

Regina huffed, and then she flicked her wrist. “Then it seems you are all agreed.” Ignoring the men, she marched to the door. “I am ready when you are.” She glanced at Henry, who was perched on a stool by the door, and then moved to stand by him.

“It is the middle of the night, Regina,” Mary Margaret said. “Some of us have been standing all day.”

“I am also...“ Merlin paused. “Drained. I would urge you all to rest the night. The morning will bring clarity where there is - confusion.” He looked meaningfully at Regina.

Regina looked at her hands, and then looked back at Henry. “That is acceptable,” she said finally. “Mary Margaret and Emma, if we are resting the night, can I speak with you privately?” Henry slumped, and Regina said, “I will meet you upstairs,” to him. Emma wondered what they would talk about, in the privacy of their room. What confidence would Henry give Regina? How irreplaceable she was to him, and he to her. They looked at each other like there was no space for anyone else, and maybe there shouldn't be.

How would Emma make it up to Henry? Henry didn't even know what she had done. If Regina ever found out…

“Where is Killian?” David asked. “I haven't seen him since the morning.”

Everyone looked around, shrugging. “Perhaps he did not escape?” Merlin suggested, and Emma wondered suddenly how much he knew. “Once you retrieve Excalibur, we will destroy the darkness and free him.”

* * *

They met by the well, in the moonlight. Regina held the dagger in fingers that trembled slightly. She faced Mary Margaret. “Emma asked me to hold her dagger, but I am afraid that I am not equal to the task. I would ask you to take it in my stead.”

Mary Margaret grimaced and looked at Emma. “Is this what you want, Emma?”

Emma considered it. She had said that Regina had the strength to kill her if Emma needed to die. It was true. Yet Regina had held her in thrall for days, under a command that destroyed her ability to think. If it hasn't felt so good, and if Emma had not found herself walking deeper into the darkness once freed from that command - how could Emma explain how right it felt that Regina have that ultimate power over her? Emma knew what Regina would do with it - and Regina knew too, and was horrified by it. Regina blamed herself entirely for what they had done together. It was more powerful than any other binding.

“No,” Emma found herself saying. “Regina, please keep it. You are the only one who can do what needs to be done, if it does come to that.”

“Emma,” Regina whispered. “Please.”

Emma turned to her mother, ignoring Regina. “Regina is the one who should hold my dagger.”

She almost regretted it at 3am, when the command slapped her with dripping need. Regina did not summon her, and Emma did not come to her, although it was a close thing. Henry was in her room. After a long five minutes, the command released her, and it didn't return. Emma lay on the forest floor and fucked her fingers with the memory of Regina on top of her, and the memory of the abruptly aborted meeting of their bodies in the forest. She was unable to orgasm. Her mind swirled with what she had done the previous day, with the twin betrayals of Hook and Henry, with Regina's eyes when Emma again asked her to keep the dagger. She wished for the warmth of Regina's bed, the softness of her skin against Emma's, the satisfaction of watching Regina sleep in the candlelight. Was it force of habit, built in the week as Regina's slave? Emma was suddenly and miserably alone.

She left Hook in the forest overnight, although she had long ago conjured a heavy winter getup for him, and a sleeping bag. She'd free him when they restored Excalibur tomorrow, as Merlin had said. There was no need to distract the group by having him wander into their midst, confused, although they would probably conclude that it was Arthur's doing.

After breakfast, which Merlin provided, their farewells were brief. Regina's eyes met Emma's as Emma hugged David, and Emma wanted to touch her precious, perfect hands, to kiss her forehead and tell her that her worry was unfounded.

Instead she turned away, following Merlin out the door. The others would track Arthur down and take Excalibur from him. A pang of fear hit Emma. Arthur was more dangerous to Regina and the rest than the Flame of Prometheus was to Emma - surely.

Emma turned to Merlin. “We need to help them.”

Merlin shook his head. “I have seen many possible futures branching off from this moment. In none of them does the queen perish. Be still your impatient heart and listen to me.” They disappeared, and reappeared before the urn where Prometheus' fire had been.

“It's empty,” Emma said, looking suspiciously at Merlin.

Merlin had her dagger in his hands. “That is true. It is because the first Dark One stole its ember. She has it, still. The reason I have asked you to come here is that you are the only one that can speak with her. Take the ember from her.”

“Regina wouldn't have let you take that.”

“I didn't ask her.” Merlin offered it again, and Emma took it. Another wave of release caught her. So simply dropping the dagger, or exchanging possession, was not the same as Emma possessing it herself. Did Regina's command still remain, yesterday? Perhaps there was another command that  Emma had not detected, one that was less direct, that persisted.

It was too conflicted, a whirlwind of feeling and loss and love, and Emma could not tease herself out from it. Slowly she was able to see that it was not Regina's command that changed. Her command had been lifted fully before this moment. It was something else about holding the dagger in her own hands, something she had not felt fully until she was habituated to someone else's command. Full power of choice. It was heady, reckless. The voices of the other Dark Ones echoed in Emma's mind, urgent.

Merlin watched her carefully. “You have betrayed the purest love that you have ever found in this world. You thought that it was for the right cause. That the ends justified the means. But it is these decisions that make a life, not only the big ones. The corruption of the first Dark One lives on in you, and you have been unable to fully restrain it.

“But you have not yet killed. I said that I saw many futures branching off from this moment. In one, I live through this encounter, and the ones following it. We do not have much time. Remember your purpose here - to destroy the darkness that grips your soul, forever. I do not know how, but I know that despite everything, you _can_ find a way. Call her to you. Nimue.”

Emma did so, and a hooded figure appeared before her. She removed her mask, and under it she was sparkling green. Her eyes were wider than they should be, also a deep green. Emma's first thought was, _When will that happen to me?_

Nimue glanced at Merlin, and then ignored him, instead circling Emma. “A worthy vessel,” she said at last.

“I'm glad you approve,” Emma snapped. Despite her defiant words she felt a swelling pride. She was a better Dark One than Rumplestiltskin. He was a coward, never worthy of this power - selected for it because of that. Emma was deliberation, intelligence, nobility. Everything that Mr. Gold had never been, and far more dangerous for it.

“You know that there is something my dear lost love neglected to tell you and the others. Do you want to know what it is?”

Emma shook her head. “Give me the Flame of Prometheus and leave this place. You are dead. Stop your tormenting and rest.”

Nimue laughed, a barking sound. “The blade he forged to strip him of the gift of the Grail, he broke when he discovered I had tasted its gift as well. He could not let me go, and sought to violate me, giving up all sense of purpose in the process. He no longer wished to live a mortal life. He wanted life everlasting, with me by his side. How even the brightest light may fall. Yet he still believed that he was right in this, in restraining me rather than taking my life. The Light One.” Her voice was mocking. “It has always been him, through all the ages. Now he has determined that it is time to destroy me, rather than control me. But his choice to break Excalibur had a consequence that he did not foresee.”

“It's true, Emma.” Emma tore her eyes from Nimue to look at Merlin. “I forged the blade to sever my powers from myself. What I hadn't realized - what I didn't care about at the time - was that by separating Excalibur and leashing Nimue with it, I changed its fundamental purpose. I cannot guarantee that even when we reunite the blade, it will be able to safely remove the darkness without…” he paused, sighing.

Nimue finished for him. “Without destroying the carrier of it. If you take the Flame of Prometheus, you embrace your own death.” She cocked her head. “It has begun.”

Emma saw a flash - Regina's magic, wrapping the Round Table, embracing Arthur and Guenevere like a cloak, and then spreading through the rest of Camelot. Where it touched, stone turned to wood and air. Regina had watched Merlin remove the spell on Mary Margaret and David, and learned from it. Somehow she had deduced that the castle itself was made of the same stuff, a cheap facade built over rotting planks and poverty.

Arthur's armor turned to a tunic. The Round Table was replaced by a cracking desk, cheap and ancient. In Arthur's fist, the glamour Merlin had put on Excalibur also lifted.

Regina saw it first. _Merlin._ Etched on the blade of Excalibur. Of course.

“All bindings must have a counter. All spells have a price. It was too powerful to go one way.” Merlin spoke quickly. “I protected it using the stone, but put my trust in the wrong boy to pull it. I'm sorry. Our fate now rests in your hands.”

 _Merlin,_ the first cry rang out. Emma felt it too, deep in her bones. The summoning. _Come to me._

Merlin disappeared, and Emma faced Nimue alone.


	6. Chapter 6

_ The usher sat next to Emma, watching as the cartoon Arthur pulled Excalibur from the stone.  _

_ “Emma, when the time comes, your boy will try to make the ultimate sacrifice for you. Follow your heart and do not let him. Just remember this one thing. It is your burden to bear. Do not allow Henry to take it from you.” _

* * *

Of course Merlin would not have wanted to face Arthur, in case Arthur accidentally commanded him. That was why Merlin had arranged for the others to confront Arthur at the same time that Emma and he retrieved the Flame. Fate would have it that Arthur discovered the secret anyway.

Nimue still circled Emma. “Nobody else knows what the reforged Excalibur will do. Only you have the power to take the ember from me. If you do, any magician can reforge the blade. So you must decide, now. To take the ember, or to retain your powers and your life? You are running out of time.”

In the shanty that the highest tower of Camelot had been revealed to be, Arthur pointed his gloved hand at the intruders. Merlin effortlessly stripped Regina of her magic, and the others of their weapons. He snapped them away, into the forest, binding their hands around trees. And then Merlin wrapped a tendril of vine around Mary Margaret's neck. The look of pain on Mary Margaret's face mirrored that on Merlin's.  _ Emma, _ he mouthed. Merlin knew she was watching. So did Arthur, or he wouldn't have commanded this of Merlin.

“This is just the first time that your family is threatened. Would you really leave them vulnerable? Go to them. Stop Merlin, or he will kill your mother. Go now. Forget the Flame ever existed.”

Emma turned to Nimue. “I think you're confused. I'm the Savior, remember?” She reached into Nimue’s chest and her hands closed over the ember. “Self-sacrifice comes in the package.” 

She stored the flame securely in her own chest, and then she jumped to the woods, behind Merlin, and wrapped her hands around his neck. 

The vine released Mary Margaret. Merlin closed his eyes, and Arthur spat, “Fight her! Defend yourself!”

Merlin flipped Emma over his shoulder, and her magic met his, dark against light. He was prone on the ground, and she pressed forward.  _ My equal in power, _ Merlin had said. But Emma held her own dagger, and Merlin was an unwilling thrall. There was no contest, despite her inexperience.

Emma redirected part of her power toward the strings of enchantment that bound her family to the trees. Regina snapped into action, and Emma focused back on Merlin, keeping him down. Emma had thought the power she felt while breaking Merlin's prison had been overwhelming. But this - the clash of dark against light - Emma had the sensation of fate, as if this was the only possible outcome. She pressed the magic down, suffocating Merlin. 

Merlin's magic ended abruptly. Black tendrils of power wrapped Merlin's body, and Emma put her hands back around his neck. She would snuff out the light. 

“Emma, stop!” It was Regina, but she was too far away. Her magic fumbled weakly against the cage Emma had trapped Merlin within. He thrashed with finality, and then it was over.

Emma's magic dissipated, and she was crouched over the sorcerer. Light seeped from his skin, coalescing into tendrils that crept along the forest floor. 

_ Finally, _ all the Dark Ones sighed in her mind.  _ Finally, he is gone. _

Emma looked up. David was with Mary Margaret. Belle was hiding behind a tree. Robin had approached Arthur, but it was Henry that held Excalibur. 

Merlin's body fell to dust between Emma's fingers. And the light snapped into the air, swirling. It circled Regina, and Emma hoped for and against it. What if Regina was the next Light One? Together - they could find a way to destroy the darkness without killing Emma. Regina needed Merlin's help. They all did.

But the light considered Regina only a moment before turning away.

To Henry. It entered him through his hands and mouth, and Emma ached to see the pain of binding, remembering her own. He was far too young. But he did not look afraid.

When it was over, Henry fell to his knees. Excalibur was gone. Regina ran to him, wrapping him in her arms. 

Emma stumbled to her feet, for the first time seeing her hands. They were dusted in shining blue. She had killed Merlin. He hasn't fought her back. 

Mary Margaret went to Emma and held her. “Are you OK?” she asked softly.

“I - I should never have - I am so sorry,” Emma blurted. “But I know how to destroy the darkness. We just need Excalibur. It's almost over.”

Henry's eyes opened and he whispered something to Regina, and Regina turned sharply to look at Emma. Emma pushed through Mary Margaret's arms and fell to her knees beside them. 

Henry looked at her with pain. “Mom,” he murmured. 

Emma collapsed, grasping his hand. “I love you, Henry. Where is Excalibur?”

“In the - in the stone.”

“Fuck,” Emma cursed. 

“That's OK,” Henry said, smiling slightly at her. “I think I know the hero.”

“And then we will return to Storybrooke,” Regina said. “We need the Apprentice’s hat.”

“Oh,” Emma said. “I didn't think of that.” The hat could remove the darkness from her, as it had removed it from Rumplestiltskin. An elegant solution. 

Regina's eyes crinkled. “That's why you need us, Miss Swan.”

“Yeah,” Emma said, and looked at Henry. “Who's your hero?”

“Merida. She's in the king’s dungeon, although -” Henry's brow furrowed. “She has almost escaped. Mom’s spell turned it into a pigsty.” He addressed Emma. “Mom, I don't see Hook anywhere. Where is he?”

So Merlin had not told Henry. Emma sighed in relief. Could she block Henry's sight of him? She tried to. 

Robin had taken his manacles over to Arthur and attempted to snap them on him, but something wasn't working. “Ah, Regina, a little help here?” he asked awkwardly, breaking their circle. Regina's eyes flicked to meet Emma's and she stood. That one look communicated more than her words ever had to Emma. Whatever fucked-up thing this was, true love had nothing on it. Emma didn't even feel sorry for him.

Emma looked at Henry. “Can you stand, kid?” she asked him.

“I think so,” Henry said. He took her hand. “Merlin says it's almost over.”

“Yeah,” Emma agreed. 

“Do you feel any different?” His eyes looked wiser than his age. 

Emma looked down at her hands, wondering what to say. The truth would have to do. “No.”

They regrouped at Granny's. Emma cornered Regina at the bathroom, pressing her knife into Regina's hands. Regina looked at her with open disgust.

“What game are you playing?”

“No game,” Emma said, taken aback. “If Merlin hadn't taken it from you, I would not have done what I did.”  _ No, Emma. _ She was the only one who'd spoken. The only one, perhaps, that had imagined what Emma would do. 

“You'd like to make me responsible for your actions. You want me to take the blame. That's not how this works.”

“Isn't it?” Emma could hear the secondary meaning in her tone. “You're my -” Her what? Emma grasped for the word. 

“I am not,” Regina said. “I'm not your anything. You're not my pet. This isn't a game. Give it to your mother.”

“But you're the only one that can protect it. The only one I trust.”

“If that is your reasoning, give it to your son. I can't - I won't - be manipulated by you any longer.”

Emma turned away and went to Regina's shared room with Henry. She wrapped her arms around her son, who stared into space on the single bed. She knew the sensation. Exhaustion without rest. The entire world at your fingertips, an endless vista, and the only thing you want, out of reach. 

“I'm sorry about Violet,” Emma whispered to him.

“You can't be sorry enough,” Henry whispered back. 

“Yeah,” Emma said to him. “I know.”


	7. Chapter 7

Regina spun the Apprentice's wand in her hand, and it glowed a forbidding green. Her eyes flashed in satisfaction. Around them, the building shook. Back to Storybrooke. Excalibur shone in Henry's hand. In his other hand, Emma's dagger glowered, nearly defeated.

The fury waited for them there. Emma could feel it, on the edge of town, dancing between the shadows cast between buildings by the full moon.

The non-magical of their group were too fragile to involve in this. As they had agreed, Henry and his mothers said nothing to them. Instead, when Granny's stopped shaking, they each disappeared, Regina in purple smoke, Emma in black, and Henry in billowing clouds of white. They reappeared in sequence at Mr. Gold’s shop.

The fury should not delay their plans, but Emma already knew that even the Light One could not defeat the harbinger of Death. _Boring,_ Emma thought to herself. This was not a problem worthy of their attention. She ran through the same calculation she had with Hook, coming to a different conclusion this time.

Henry would see what she did. Better to do what needed to be done, or retain his compassion for her? To begin the process of redeeming her betrayal, or to deal with a problem that was intractable? What would Regina do, when she found out that a fury had come to take Robin Hood to Hades?

Emma disappeared. Back to Granny's. She grabbed Robin's shoulder and brought him with her to the river Styx. She left him on its shores, boneless, a puddle of muscle and guts and one beating heart. And then she went back to Granny's, faster than Henry could command her, and wrenched the glowing ember of Prometheus from her chest.

“Mom!” Henry said sharply.

“Don't make me fight you for this, Henry,” Emma said. “I will. Ask Merlin what the right thing to do is.”

Henry turned to the side, and Regina looked between them. “What happened? Where did you go?”

Henry looked back. “Nowhere,” he said. “Don't worry about it, Mom.”

The Apprentice’s hat was in Regina's hands. She looked at Emma, holding the ember of Prometheus.

She sighed. “Well? Get on with it.”

Emma released the ember into the air, breathing on it softly. It burst into flame. She stepped back.

Henry brought the blades together into the flame. Emma watched as Merlin's magic - the Light One - reforged the blade.

Regina hesitated long enough to confirm that Henry was finished. She took Emma's heart from her chest and, holding the hat in her other hand, recited the incantation from memory. “Purest evil, blackest bloom, darkness too can find its doom. Never dying but contained, bound inside the falcon’s chamber. Shorn of anger, thornless danger, there forever to contain.”

The hat exploded in her hands, throwing her backward, and the darkness coiled around her.

Henry swung the reforged Excalibur into the black cloud, and Emma could hear all the Dark Ones laughing. The tendrils danced around the blade, never touching it.

Henry looked in panic at Emma, and Emma dove after Regina. Her heart was still in Regina's hands, and it felt no different than it always did.

The darkness swirled around them both. Henry raised Excalibur and called it to him. As the darkness entered his small body, he howled. His edges fuzzed and frayed.

Emma scrambled to her feet and threw her own magic, no longer the Dark One’s, at his chest. It had worked on the Apprentice.

It worked on Henry, jolting the darkness from him. But the darkness was not alone. The Light One would not let the darkness go. The tendrils twisted and wrapped around each other. Emma saw the same fuzziness around the tendrils’ edges that had started to destroy Henry’s body. _It is your burden to bear. Follow your heart. Do not let Henry take it from you._ The usher had been Merlin.

Emma wrenched Excalibur from Henry's loosened grip and stepped into the cloud.

* * *

_Don't blame yourself, Henry. She knew what she was doing._

_But she's going to die._

_She would rather see a world with you in it, and not herself. As would I._

Regina jolted Emma out of her daze in a shower of sparks. Her lips were ruby-red. She wore a flowing white shirt and a tan pencil skirt. She sat on the bed beside Emma, putting her hand on Emma's hip. Henry was gone.

“You and I, we are going to try something,” she told Emma, smiling a little. “I've done some research. Merlin believed that the Dark One was the essence of original sin, the same that we are all born with. He believed that -” Regina paused. “Emma, are you there?”

“Mmm,” Emma murmured. “Your lips.” All pretense had left her.

Regina smiled, with a fire in her eye. “Do you want a kiss?” Regina had figured her out. Emma found that she didn't care at all.

“Don't tease,” Emma managed, and Regina did lean down and kiss her.

When Regina pulled away, she was still smiling. “I'm going to need you a little more lively for what I had in mind, dear.”

Emma touched her shoulder, let her hand drift down her arm. “Whazzat?” she asked.

Rather than answering, Refina magicked her own clothes away and slipped under the covers of the bed.

Emma turned into her body, and their lips met more enthusiastically than before. Emma stroked down Regina's side, and Regina sighed. Emma pulled away. “Is this my big reward?” she asked. “For saving everyone, being the mortal vessel, and all - stuff?”

“Not… exactly,” Regina said. “Emma, you are dying.”

Emma looked down at her hands, bone-white, fuzzy. Disappearing. At least she wasn't blue anymore. “Yeah,” she said. “I am, aren't I?” She'd saved Henry. “What'll happen?”

“The magic will try to find a new home, and - it will find another person, who will slowly die as you are dying, I think. Our only chance is to kill you with Excalibur.”

Emma mumbled, “Sis was always the plan.”

“Or… we could find a vessel better suited than you. Merlin believed that a child could hold both the light and the dark together at once. He hoped that it could be their child, his and Nimue’s, but it wasn't to be.”

“My god,” Emma said, stirring into a languid panic. “I don't want to have another baby.” She looked at Regina, naked under her hands, in Emma's death bed, and realized that she didn't understand.

“You don't have to do anything,” Regina said. “Merlin had the spell, but Nimue was unwilling and they never consummated. All you need to do is give the magic to me. I will handle the rest.”

Emma blinked her eyes, trying to focus. “How?”

“I think you remember, Miss Swan,” Regina said playfully, and Emma rolled on top of her. Her dressing-gown went the same way as Regina's suit, and Emma kissed Regina like she had the first time. Regina arched, and their bodies fit closer together. This time Regina moaned and ground against Emma's thigh. “Let me give you what you deserve - your life back.”

Emma nodded and kissed a trail down Regina's body, running her hands down the inside of Regina's thighs. Regina’s legs opened, and Emma kissed the juncture between her thigh and her hair, and then kissed lower, slowly. Her lips met Regina's clit, and she sucked it into her mouth. She could taste seven nights of heaven there, between Regina's thighs. She ran her tongue down Regina to tease her entrance, and a wave of dizziness overtook her. Her edges fuzzed.

“Oh, Emma,” Regina said softly. “Your fingers.”

Emma rearranged herself clumsily, fitting her fingers at Regina's entrance. She looked up at her. 

Regina moaned and pressed down on Emma's fingers, and Emma watched as they sank into her. And then the magic started, pulling the light and the darkness from Emma. Regina looked almost surprised, and Emma slid her fingers deeper, wondering at the feeling of pouring herself out, into Regina. Regina's eyes rolled back and her hips spasmed, and Emma put her lips against Regina's clit and sucked gently.

Emma's body was already reviving. She drew her fingers back, and then thrust in, beginning a stroking motion into Regina. Every moment she felt stronger than the last. Regina's fingers were in her hair, just for the touch, and she shook and arched. Emma reached up and cupped her breast, tweaked her nipple. “Oh, Regina, you feel so good,” she said. “You're perfect.”

Regina smiled slightly, and then Emma pinched her nipple again and she threw her head back, putting her hands up, by her head on the pillow. It was almost the end. Emma could feel the last of the magic coiling in her elbow, ready for release. Ready to enter Regina, to fill her womb. Emma wondered if it was Regina's child, or their child, that she was helping create. It was Merlin's spell, wasn't it? Merlin would have wanted the child to be theirs.

Emma was distracted by an unfamiliar motion - Regina's body was grasping her fingers, lightly, and Regina's hips were softly circling, a sharp contrast with the hard rolls just before, into Emma's mouth and her fingers. Emma sucked, and Regina twitched, and then the last of the magic was inside her and Emma stilled her fingers. Regina's walls rippled around Emma one more time, and Emma could feel something change again inside Regina, and pulled her fingers out.

She scooted up in the bed and placed one sloppy kiss on Regina's belly, and then she passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope nobody expected anything less from me than yet another awesome magical pregnancy! Wooo. 
> 
> I'd originally planned to just kill Henry here. This is so much more fun, right?
> 
> Loads more problems to come.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took some time to get Emma the way I wanted her. And I'm going to try to make my updates a more dignified length. Hope you enjoy.

A crackle of magic, a snap against her face, woke Emma, and she flinched from it, rolling partially off Regina. She pulled herself up in the bed and looked at Regina, whose face was carefully controlled.

“Hey,” Emma said, and Regina ran her fingers through Emma's hair.

“Better?” Regina asked her.

“Much,” Emma said. She put her hand where her face had been, and it was unmistakable, the flicker of life under her palm. _Yours or ours?_ Her chest was tight with it. How quickly things could change. Dawn was just breaking. At this time yesterday, Regina had been at Granny's with a full mug of coffee, studying Merlin's spell book with a pantsuit on. When Emma sat on the stool beside her, she had gotten up and moved to a booth, icy.

And now she was pregnant. It was terrifying and exhilarating. They hadn't even talked about anything yet. Emma was uncertain that her attraction was not a side effect of Regina's forcibly imposed desires, or a habit formed from hours of loving Regina's body. Surely Regina, too, had doubts. It was the first time they’d even kissed outside of the command.

But they'd defeated the darkness, together. It had involved some behavior not suitable for primetime. Who would have thought, that Emma's fingers in Regina could destroy the embodiment of ages-old evil?

Not destroy. Repurpose. Turn into - something else. Regina said a child. Panic again caught Emma's breath.

“Did that really just happen?”

“It did,” Regina said, and she pulled Emma's head down to rest on her chest.

“Wow, I,” Emma said. “Thank you for figuring that out.”

“I am just grateful I had time,” Regina said softly.

“You had no time,” Emma said in a teasing voice, although she meant it. Whatever spell Regina had found - even formulated by Merlin, to modify it so that Emma and Regina could use it - and with the darkness and light already bound together - it had been an impossible feat. Emma didn't remember anyone else visiting. Had Regina and Henry kept the rest away?

Of course they had. Regina had not been sure it would work. She would have killed Emma, if it hadn't. Was Henry complicit? No. Regina kept him here to prevent his telling the rest.

The vanquished Dark One in Emma admired Regina's scheme. It had all come down to her, in the end. Nobody else would have been up to the challenge. What Regina had felt so unequal to - taking Emma's place, becoming the Savior while Emma was herself swallowed by darkness - she had done it.

Emma kissed Regina's sternum, and up Regina's neck to meet her lips. Her heart glowed happiness, and her body shivered to kiss Regina. It felt impossible that Emma should be the one in her bed. The one Regina wanted. Yet Regina kissed her back with such passion that it was impossible to mistake it for anything else. Emma wondered how many years of her life she had wasted by not kissing Regina the first time she'd wanted to.

Then the magic snapped Emma's fingers where they rested on Regina's belly, and Regina gasped, flinching.

“What is that?” Emma asked her. “Are you OK?” Her sudden happiness was drowned just as suddenly in dread.

“The magic -” Regina said harshly, and stopped. “It tries to escape.”

“We've got to build better walls, maybe? Did Merlin foresee that?”

Regina's eyes were tight. “I do not think that would be healthy for our baby, to trap her with the overflow.”

“OK,” Emma said, trying to meter her breath. _Our baby._ Good or bad? She couldn't tell. She didn't want another baby. She hadn't wanted the first. “You just tell me what to do. How to help you. Both.”

Regina looked at her. “I will,” she said softly. “Emma, I…” she paused, and then she just put her hand on Emma's jaw and kissed her again.

Emma was grateful for her silence. Whatever it was that Regina wanted to tell her would not be good. It was already too much to handle. Too much had happened today, and the day had barely begun. Robin was dead. Hook was in Arthur's realm, likely dead, too - Emma had not fed or given him water for days. With the darkness removed from her - as removed as it could be - Emma was devastated by what she'd done.

The worst of it was that the person who had done those things did not feel very far away. At all.

A knock sounded at the door. They were still in Gold's shop, in the apartment above it. Luckily, Gold and Belle had a guest room, although it was cramped and old-fashioned, and the ceiling sloped with the roof. “Um, Mom? Regina?” Henry tried the handle, but it was locked.

Emma and Regina shared a look, and Regina clothed herself and Emma with a flick of her wrist. The same getups as before. Clothing was not something Emma was good at, and Emma wondered suddenly how they both knew it. Regina had never clothed Emma before.

Emma opened the door, and Henry's face broke into a wide smile. He fell into her arms, and in his hug Emma found far more comfort than Regina's. “Hey, kid,” she said, kissing his forehead.

“All better?”

“Yeah,” Emma whispered. “All better.”

“What did you do?” Henry's question was directed at Regina. She was standing by the rumpled bed, ruler-straight, stern. The dawn had broken and the sunlight through the window lit her hair in red and gold.  
Emma waited for Regina to answer. Regina took a breath, tight and brief. She looked only at Henry.

She couldn't tell him she'd destroyed the darkness using Excalibur. She couldn't tell him she'd taken it from Emma, as Emma had taken it from Henry. But the truth also seemed too tenuous to share. Too private, too urgent. This had never been done before. If anything happened - if this baby, as in one-third of all pregnancies, did not live through the next few months - it would be Regina who Emma would be forced to kill.

And what would Henry think, if he found out that Regina was pregnant with Emma's baby? He would wonder if they were sleeping together, probably. That hope Emma had seen in his eyes, a hope for Regina's happiness, and for his own… it would become an additional pressure on them, a pressure that Regina and Emma did not need.

Regina spoke. “I banished it to another realm. A realm without bodies. It is alone there, with itself.”

“Wow,” Henry said softly. “I'm so proud of you, mom.” He paused. “Sometimes you seem like you're not even human.”

Regina laughed slightly, rolling her eyes. “Trust me, Henry, I am nothing but.” Emma saw tears in her eyes. Emma and Henry shuffled to her and the three of them held each other. Emma had the irrational thought that they could stay like that forever. Everyone would be safe if they did not move.

They broke apart. “Mary Margaret and David will want to know what happened,” Regina said. “Let's go tell them.”

* * *

Emma showed up on Regina and Henry's doorstep a few days later. Henry got the door.

“Hey,” Henry said. “Come in, I'm making dinner.”

“Oh, yeah?” Emma fidgeted at the threshold. “Hey, I was thinking I might want to take your mom out to dinner tonight, instead. Do you think that'd be OK with you?”

“Sure,” Henry said. He gave her a once-over. “I think she's in the living room.” He leaned forward and whispered, “She's really upset about Robin.”

“Yeah, um, that's part of what I wanted to talk with her about.” Emma valiantly ignored the roiling of her stomach. Robin was definitely the only thing Regina was upset about. Definitely.

“Good,” he said. “Did you end up figuring out where Hook is?”

“I know for sure he's not dead,” Emma told him. “Other than that, I've got nothing.” Her decisions as the Dark One had hurt Killian more than anyone else - except maybe Robin. And Regina. And Henry. At least she hadn't killed Hook, but Emma did dread their next conversation. It would probably be along the lines of, _Fuck you, Emma Swan, I hope you find all the torment you deserve in Hades. I've put in a word with the man in charge._ It wouldn't be too off-base from Emma's plan. The plan that she needed to tell Regina about, ASAP. That was why she'd waited so long to talk with her privately. She had to work out the details. Right? Right.

“Oh, well. He's tough.”

“Yeah,” Emma agreed. “I know.” She stepped through the door, and Henry shut it behind her.

Henry said, “I think you know where the living room is,” from behind her.

“Right,” Emma said. She wiped her hands on her jeans. “I'll just go there by myself, now.”

Henry went to the kitchen, and Emma walked with leaden steps into the living room.

Regina was standing at the table in the corner. Books were piled on it, but they were all closed. She watched Emma take two steps into the room. “Hey, Regina,” she said, with forced casualness.

“Emma.”

“I was hoping you might want to come with me to Frankie's. For dinner?”

There were no nice places to eat in town. Emma was wearing a tank top. It felt absurd.

“That would be nice,” Regina said. “Let me get my purse.”

Emma got the front door for her, and also the yellow bug's door. She paused, wondering if there was something else to say. Then she just started the car and hit the accelerator with gusto.

“How's Henry at school? No trouble with Mrs. Brown, hopefully?”

“Mrs. Brown thinks that I have been keeping him out of class because of math. Which he is failing, as you know.”

“Math is for nerds,” Emma said.

“It seems you and Henry are agreed on that," Regina said dryly, looking out the passenger window. “Regardless of how many stop signs you blow through, Miss Swan, this conversation will end no sooner.”

“Yeah,” Emma said. Then, in a massive rush, she said, “Hey, so I feel like I'm regressing a little bit. I feel like I'm 18 again, except it's worse because then it was just me, and this time it's you and kind of me. I feel like I'm about to be a really shitty person and a really shitty friend and I'm trying really hard not to do that but I don't have any idea how, and the ice queen routine is really not helping at all.” Regina scoffed, still looking out the window. “But I'm going to try, right now, and I am pretty sure all I need from you is to listen.” She fumbled in her pocket with hands that shook, putting a cigarette in her mouth. “Do you mind?” she said.

Regina looked at her, and then snapped, “I do mind. Put that away.”

Emma dumped the pack and the single between the seats.

“Did you smoke when you were pregnant with Henry?”

“No, just after.” Emma focused on the road. Her momentum was gone. She imagined Regina with baby Henry. 

“You were in the midst of a confession?” Regina prompted, and Emma pulled the car over and looked at her, wishing for the simplicity of the Dark One.

“I'm really, really sorry for what I did to Robin, but guess what I found out when I left him at Styx? Other than how close it is? I found out what can open it. At the next full moon, I'm going to cross the first river and get him back for you. And Roland. That's what I'll do to make it up to you.”

Regina was silent, looking at Emma, for a long time. “He is dead, Emma,” she said. “What makes you think he will be in Fields of Asphodel? That he hasn't moved on to the Elysian Fields?”

Emma looked sidelong at Regina. “Do you really think he is happy? That he has closure?”

Regina sighed. “I don't know,” she admitted.

“I killed him,” she said, her throat closing up. “I owe him. My parents -”

Regina shook her head sharply. “You can't split your heart for him. Let the dead rest.”

Emma looked at her hands on the steering wheel. “I can,” she said. “And I'm going to.”

Regina reached up and touched Emma's hand, and Emma released the steering wheel and turned her hand up. It was a rush of confused happiness. That was one question answered. Regina's touch did the same thing to Emma that it had done before. Somehow the information did nothing to relieve the tightness in her chest.

“I won't lose you both. We will make a deal with Hades.”

“He's a dick,” Emma said.

“And he won't be pleased that we invaded his realm.”

“We?” Emma looked at Regina. She couldn't deny that the idea of having Regina with her was appealing. Regina would protect her. Emma's plan suddenly felt much more viable. “What's the deal we will make?”

Regina sighed. “We have twenty-six days to figure that out.”

“Yeah,” Emma said. She smiled a little, and Regina smiled back at her.

“Did you want to go back to Camelot and get Hook?” Regina asked her. The proximity of the question to their prior conversation was jarring to Emma. So they would go back to whatever they had been? Friends?

Emma squeezed Regina's hand. “Not really,” she said. “I'd rather not see him again.”

Regina released her hand. “Should we walk from here?” Frankie's was just two blocks away.

“Oh,” Emma said. “I'll just pull forward a bit.”

After dinner, Emma dropped Regina off at her house. They hadn't kissed - Emma didn't want to kiss Regina near Henry, and kissing her in the car felt too vulgar. But things felt better than they had. They had plans for the next day which involved mounds of books, and Emma looked forward to it for the first time. Research with Regina. That sounded nice. Maybe they'd kiss then, with Henry at school and the house to themselves.

* * *

  
Regina opened her door with the same flowing white shirt she'd worn when she took the light and the dark from Emma. She was smiling, and Emma paused in the doorway, trying to take her in. To absorb the moment through every pore, because was this ever an experience, Regina smiling at her, Regina in that shirt, Regina Regina Regina.

“Come in,” Regina invited, and Emma took the few steps inside. Regina closed the door behind her, and Emma turned and put her hands on Regina's hips. Their lips met hesitantly.

This wasn't so difficult, after all. Regina's lips opened and Emma deepened the kiss. Regina was softer than Emma remembered, and warmer. It was not the raw desperation of her command, or the nearly-unconscious touches they had shared in Gold's attic. It was just them. Emma and Regina. Kissing.

They parted for breath, and Regina searched Emma's eyes. Emma imagined backing Regina up against the door and taking her as she had in the forest, what felt like forever ago. Was Regina already that wet for her? The memory of all the things they had done to each other was fresh. It made Emma's palms sweat.

Regina deserved better than that. Emma wished she had brought something for her. Flowers, chocolate? Both? It all seemed utterly inadequate. But better than showing up empty-handed.

“I picked up all the relevant books from Gold’s already.”

“Oh, good,” Emma said. “Just let me know where to start.”

Regina led her to the same table she had stood at last night and placed a book into Emma's hands. “Skim only.”

“I'll take notes, and when I'm finished skimming I will show you the parts that seem helpful?” That was the usual routine.

“Yes, that would be good.”

Twice in the morning, the magic snapped in Regina's body. Both times, Regina hissed in pain. It hadn't happened at the restaurant last night, at all. Emma wondered why.

Around noon, when Regina went to the bathroom, Emma found Merlin's spell book. She flipped through it, looking for the spell Regina had used on the darkness.

And then she flipped through it again. Each spell was labeled immaculately. There were three blank pages at the end, as if Merlin had not quite had enough time to finish. Emma's face was numb.

Regina came back in, and said, “What's wrong?” Her eyes flicked to the book under Emma's hands, and her lips thinned.

“It wasn't one of Merlin's spells, was it, Regina?”

Regina sighed. She folded her hands. “No, it wasn't.”

“You made it up? You were just hoping it would work? Do you - do you have any idea - what it felt like, to be the battleground? The darkness wants to destroy the light, and the light won't let the darkness go - they will never stop fighting. It's torture, Regina. It's actually torture. I thought if Merlin came up with it, it would be OK, it would be safe. It's not OK.” Emma could feel the cool that she had held so tenuously slip away, replaced by disgust and hatred. 

Regina's eyes were watery. “I couldn't kill you without trying something, Emma. Would you -”

“That would have been better. Fuck, Regina, I would never have done it if I'd known.” That was why Regina lied. She knew Emma would not want that. “You're still fucking evil, you know that? To condemn your baby to that -” Not just Regina's baby. Emma blocked off the thought before it ended. 

Regina's hand rested on her stomach, and Emma turned from her, unwilling to look at her, standing there like that. She couldn't deal. Why had she looked at that book? Everything had almost been OK. “It's done,” Regina said quietly. “We can't take it back. If you are finished with me, just go.”

Emma breathed out, and disappeared.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaP-XwpFTk0
> 
> P.S. Bahahahha I clearly didn't watch this show… anyway just bear with me and we’ll call it all “canon divergence.”

 

Nobody knew the date of Emma's birthday. When she was fifteen, she changed it. The day she'd first seen Regina was the date she’d set it back then. April 2nd, because it wasn't April Fool's, but it should be.

She wasn't alone today. Mary Margaret bought a huge cake. The town joined them at Granny's. Regina sat in the booth in the back for exactly one hour, and Emma drank whiskey and chain smoked all night, damn the example she'd set for Henry, because April 2nd wasn't April Fool's, but should be, and Emma Swan was not interested in anything but alcohol and nicotine. The full moon was in two days.

David tried his first cigarette and Mary Margaret drove them back to their apartment, with Henry in the front seat holding little Neal. When David threw up on the back seat cushion, Emma tried to clean it with magic and instead made the whole cushion disappear.

In retrospect it was not the worst thing that could have happened. She could have talked to Regina. Anything she'd have said would have been bad. _I hate you. I'm going to abandon you and you're going to raise this kid alone, like you did Henry, and you shouldn't ever tell him she's his sister. I'm a shithead but you're worse. You're sent from heaven to bring me to hell._ None of it was as bad as what she had already told Regina, which was that she would rather have died than to have her daughter go through what the baby was enduring right now.

Regina sacrificing herself for Emma was one thing. Emma had done it for Henry. But Regina sacrificing her baby to save Emma was unforgivable. Emma almost hoped that the light and the dark would escape into Regina, so that Emma could use Excalibur to erase this problem. But that would mean the unthinkable, and Emma stopped there, hard stop, no more thinking.

Gold was still in his coma. Nobody but Belle had put much effort into reviving him. Emma appeared right next to the bed and took a vial of blood from him. Next stop, Hades. She didn't know why she was going, except that it was something to do, other than avoid Regina and pretend with everyone else that nothing was wrong, while Emma herself spiraled into whatever pit this was.

It _was_ her fault Robin was dead. And Regina deserved to be with her soul mate. He would be able to deal with this mess. That was why they were meant to be. Emma could only _not_ deal with it.

She continued to not deal with it as she boarded Death’s ferry with all the other lost souls.

* * *

  
Emma knew it wasn't real, but she played Hades’s game anyway. Up the elevator, to the clocktower, where Henry stood on the precipice. _Don't do it, Henry. I love you._ Down he plummeted, as he always did, splattering on the pavement, his body a pool like she had left Robin.

And then down the elevator. Regina was by Henry's side, accusation burning a hole in Emma. _You did this._

Henry rose to his feet, a demon’s fire in his eyes, and tore Regina apart. And Emma held their daughter in her arms and ran from it, ran from what Henry had become. To the mines, where she put the wailing baby down. And the mines fell down around her shoulders, smashing the baby, and Emma was crawling through the dust and the rocks, obscured by the heavy fog of Hades. She'd almost reached the waters of Lethe when the figment of Regina pulled her back and stood her up. _Don't forget. Never forget what I did._ And Regina conjured a flame and lit the pyre, and Mary Margaret and David screamed as they burned on it. _Never forget who I am. Never forget what you did to me._

And through the flames, over the pyrotechnics, eyes exploding and skulls bared to the bone, crispy black skin peeling away, she saw Henry, with his toes on the precipice, the clock glowing above his head. She tore away from Regina, and her eyes caught a bundle of blankets at the foot of the pyre. The baby. She scooped her up in her arms and kept running, back to the tower. Henry hit the ground before she reached the door. This time she could see the broken bones jutting out from his skin.

Emma gave the baby to Regina and ran away, down Main Street, toward the place where the forest hung over the road and the curse ended. She ran for a long time, and then there was a light ahead, through the trees. The clock tower. Henry was a silhouette against it.

“Fucking fuck fuck,” Emma chanted. She turned on her heel to find that the road had fallen off behind her. At the bottom of the crevice there was molten lava.

She threw herself off the cliff and into the lava. Her body liquefied in it. The pain was unbearable, far greater than was possible. Worse than death. An apt punishment for trying to escape. She could hear Hades laughing. He particularly enjoyed her attempts at suicide. The proximity of the Lethe was even more amusing to him, but phantom Regina had never failed to stop her from drinking. So far.

She woke in her room at Granny's. Her body was blackened grotesquely, a child’s parody of a third degree burn, more like the charcoal of a barbeque. Regina was in the room, heavily pregnant and straddling a Robin Hood that was as naked as she was. Emma turned from them, to the door, but she could hear their sounds even after she closed the door.

The house was on fire. Regina's screams followed her down the stairs and into the street. Pain, or pleasure? Which was worse? She imagined that her own personal hell did not differentiate between the two because they were equally horrific to her.

There was a roar from the house, and Emma turned to see a dragon burst through its roof. The dragon saw her immediately, and swooped to catch her up in its claws. She let it. Its claws pierced her skin, but she barely felt the pain. She watched her blood drip off her body, droplets of pain, a small shower over Storybrooke. The dragon was her favorite part. It was something that, despite the horror and pain, was grand. _Mother,_ the dragon said, and Emma caressed her scaly legs.

 _Take me far away from here,_ Emma begged.

 _You're too heavy._ The dragon’s wings were faltering. Her claws loosened around Emma's body.

 _What happened to Regina?_ Emma asked her daughter.

 _She knew the consequences of her choice,_ the dragon said, and then Emma was plummeting through the air.

She hit the ground of Hades painfully. A rock felt like it had fully impaled her, but when she rolled over she saw that her body was unmarred.

Regina stood there, and Emma closed her eyes. _Just stop. Please just stop for just a moment. Let me rest._

“Emma Swan,” Regina said. “Get up. We are getting you out of here.”

It was just a trick. Emma turned on her stomach and covered her face.

“Come on. Hades is distracted. Emma Swan, if you do not get up instantly, I am going to leave you watching that horror movie and you will go mad.” Regina paused. “Surely you are not mad.”

Emma turned over and peeked at her from under her arm. The awful brown ground stubbornly remained stable. The fog wrapped Regina's legs. There was nothing else, not a soul or a building or a bush in sight. She could hear the Lethe lapping behind her head.

“What is the date?” she asked Regina blearily, in a bizarre reverse-sanity test like she was supposed to give detainees at the jail, but never had. How many years had she been here?

“It's May 5th, 2016, and your parents are protecting Henry far from here. He is writing the end of Hades’s story. We have to move or this will all fall apart. Stand up, Emma.”

Emma stood and put her arm around Regina's shoulder. Regina returned the half-hug, grasping Emma’s side tightly. “You are so stupid,” Regina said, and with that Emma finally believed it. Regina was rescuing her. “Do not run off like that without telling us again.” Fever Regina was never this nice to her.

“I've got to - get Robin back,” Emma managed. “For your happy ending.”

They both disappeared, and reappeared at Granny's. It was empty and cavernous, too large. Robin was hunched over a beer, halfway finished. He leapt from the barstool and said, “Regina.” Then he looked at Emma. “Dark One,” he said grimly.

Regina released Emma. “We don't have much time,” she told him. “You must move on. What are you waiting for, Robin?”

Robin looked back at the bar, at his beer. “I've only been here a minute,” he said. “Waiting for you, Regina.”

 _This_ was Robin Hood’s hell? Waiting for Regina at Granny's, alone, for one minute? It was devastatingly unfair.

Emma pulled her shirt open. “Get my heart, Regina.”

Regina ignored her. “I'm here,” she told him. “What did you want to say to me?”

Robin shook his head, ruffling the hair on his head with one hand. “I'm sorry,” he said, sighing. “I wanted you to be happy. I'm sorry that I never managed it.”

“That wasn't your fault,” Regina said. Emma felt like she wasn't even there. They were alone, lost in each other. Jealousy stabbed her heart. It seemed impossible that anything could reach her after a month in hell, but this did.

“If I had tried harder,” he said. “After Marian… and Zelena… I should not have resented your choice, but I did.”

“ _Her_ choice, Robin,” Regina said. “Her body.”

“Right,” he said. They didn't say anything for a long moment. “I wanted to be enough for you.”

“You did nothing wrong,” Regina said to him. “Maybe in some world, we would have been right together. In this world, we were not. Please find your peace in that.”

Robin sighed, and looked at the beer. He leaned against the barstool and picked it up. “They’re telling me I just have to walk out that door to meet the Three Judges.”

“May they see your worth, Robin,” Regina said to him.

He gulped down the beer and nodded to her. Then he walked to the door and opened it.

Emma saw nothing on the other side but white light. She turned from it, and in a moment Regina had grasped her hand again. Emma looked at her. Her cheeks were flushed, and she was smiling. Emma did not smile back. She felt numb.

“That's it? You're just going to - let him go?”

Regina's smile faded, and she released Emma’s hand. “He is dead. I should never have asked you to keep him alive. It was selfish.”

Emma opened her mouth, and paused. “I thought you were upset about him being gone.” He was Emma's way out. An answer that did not require Emma to face the reality that was almost as bad as the personal hell Hades had crafted her. Robin would have taken responsibility for it all. “I killed him.”

“He was already dead, Emma,” Regina said. She was rapidly becoming distant. Maybe she intuited Emma's motivation. A coward’s solution. It was what Emma wanted - not what Regina wanted.

“How do we get out of here, Regina?”

Regina's eyes flickered. “Henry is writing Hades's ending. When it is over, we can take Charon’s ferry back. We just need to -"

“Surprise!” said an all-too-familiar voice. Emma turned, and Hades was looking at her like she was dinner. “Your favorite real, live person! God, as it were. How does it feel to see me again?” He tisked. “And Regina. Wow, you were my idol for so long. I thought you'd gone soft, but your latest trick has got me right back on board with you.” He grinned at them both. Emma was backing away. She could not face this. He would send her back there. Regina grabbed her shoulder and held her still, but she did step so that she was slightly in front of Emma, her hand sliding down to grip Emma's wrist.

“So. Your sons - sorry, son? I get that mixed up. He's written himself and Snow White and Prince Charming right back where they came from, and left you two right here. It was almost like a bargain. You know, if he tried a little bit harder, I think he actually might be good at this whole author thing. With the tragic ending. Of you both stuck here for the rest of eternity.”

Regina said, “You had Emma for long enough, Hades. Trust me, you don't want to piss me off right now.”

“A threat?” He sounded disappointed. “That means you really don't have anything on me. How uninspired.” He paused. “Of course, there's another possibility. You know what I want.”

“Not an option, Hades.” Regina's tone cut like a knife.

“At your age, making a little baby… it can't be healthy. Who would have thought, after all these years, that the Evil Queen wanted a baby of her own? Here's my guess. I'm guessing you didn't. Wouldn't you rather me take that little, tiny problem away?” Hades looked at Emma. “I sure know she does. She's been dreaming of it over, and over, and over…”

Emma felt all the hopelessness and rage of the past two months well in her chest, suffocating. There was nothing she could do about Regina, or the baby. But maybe there was something she could do about Hades.

She shook off Regina's hand and screamed.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of thinking in this chapter. You didn't think Emma had it in her? Me, either.
> 
> Also, sorry for beating the crap out of everybody...

The blast of light magic barely ruffled Hades's hair. He waved his hand as if swatting a fly, and the motion dismissed Emma’s attack. He stepped forward.

Nearly into the tip of Excalibur. Regina held it with arms that shook, two-handed. Where had she been storing it, and how did she retrieve it so easily? Had she been waiting for Hades to become distracted, or had she been toying with him?

It didn't matter, because Hades clearly had not known that she had the sword. He stopped short. Excalibur cut effortlessly through the fabric of his jacket.

“The Grail, reforged into a weapon. I have to say, I thought it was gone.”

“You should know by now, Hades. My threats are _never_ empty.” Regina's eyes flashed. Her arms had stopped shaking, bolstered no doubt by a strength spell.

It was all that Emma could do to stand upright. Her magical attack had drained what little energy she had left. She stumbled backward, and to her knees. Hades watched her, but Regina did not look away from him.

“So,” Hades said. “Let me guess. You'll kill me if I don't agree to bring you and your baby daddy to the Upper World.”

“That's the idea. And don't come haunting or I'll take your limbs off, one by one.”

Hades chuckled in amusement. “Ooo, so exciting. To be legless, or handless -” Regina raised Excalibur to his neck. The blade almost touched the side of his face. “Earless! Honestly, I have no idea if it will actually work on me.” He frowned. “Which is unusual.” He sighed. “Very well.”

Electric blue fire fogged Emma's vision. The same blue fire that Hades had snatched her in, when she arrived in the Underworld. She had a glimpse of trees - a forest, but not a magical one. Maine in May. Regina's frowning face was the last thing she saw.

She woke gasping in her bed at her parents’. Nobody was in the room with her, which was a relief because that meant it definitely wasn't the Underworld. Hades never let her rest, not for a second. Her week-and-a-day as the Dark One had prepared her for the sleeplessness of the Underworld - but nothing could have prepared her for what Hades had done to her.

She lay motionless in the bed for a long time, relishing the quiet. She moved her legs and arms, just slightly, and the feeling of soft sheets against her body was soothing. Small steps. She had never had so much time to appreciate these things. Except with Regina, maybe. In the haze of the command she has loved her stillness in sleep. She had cherished every slight movement of her body while Regina rested. Did it count as love? Emma's heart beat quickly. She tried to forget the horror show Hades had put on for her, but she remembered Regina in it. Regina was the protagonist and the antagonist, the closest ally and the bitterest enemy, and Emma realized that was always how it had been. Was it the way it always would be? Would the camera’s focus always be on Regina - the only other player that mattered, the rest a sideshow dimly seen and muffled, in black and white, while Regina moved through them all in full Technicolor?

Mary Margaret came into the room, and when she saw Emma's eyes open, she smiled broadly. “Emma. I'm so glad you're OK. Regina said you'd wake up eventually.”

Emma nodded, and Mary Margaret took it as an invitation, sat on the bed, and kept talking. “I’d better tell Henry you've woken up. He wrote your story in Hades, but he hasn't let us see it. He says it's your story to tell.” She waited for Emma to speak.

“Henry,” Emma said quietly. She had seen him die so many times, in so many ways. “I thought he destroyed the Author’s pen.”

“Regina knew it was in the Underworld. Really it was quite easy for him to find it. You wouldn't believe what else happened. James was there, your uncle. Zelena is in love with Hades. Regina and Zelena helped Cora find the Three Judges, although nobody knows where they sent her.”

Emma stopped listening. Her head pounded wickedly. Henry had written her story in Hades, Mary Margaret had said. He must know everything.

“How - how long was I sleeping?”

“Two days. Are you hungry?”

Emma shook her head. “I have to see Henry.” Henry wouldn't help. Henry would just leverage accusation against her. She had to try to fix things first. “Regina,” she said. She swallowed thickly. “Water, maybe. Will you call Regina?”

“Are you OK?”

“No, Mom,” she said. “I'm not. But I need Regina.”

Mary Margaret nodded slowly. “I will call her.”

“Let me - let me talk to her.”

Mary Margaret frowned, but brought Emma's phone to her. Emma dialed the number with shaking hands.

“This is Mayor Mills,” Regina answered. It was ridiculous. Did Regina still not have her number saved? Did she actually not know how to save her number? Wouldn't Regina have memorized it by this time?

“Regina. Will you come here.”

“You're awake.” Regina paused. “Are you feeling alright?”

Emma's breath caught. “Yes. And you?”

“I am fine.” There was silence at the other end of the line. “I will be there in a minute.”

Emma gulped water and drank some microwaved broth while she waited. She had no idea what she was going to say.

Finally, the door opened and it was Regina. She wore a belted black jacket and she was flawless, utterly breathtaking. Emma tried to smoothe her hair with her hand, and felt tangles in it. She imagined that if their positions were reversed, every hair on Regina's head would be in place.

Regina pulled the side chair over and sat, looking severe.

“Thanks for saving me,” Emma said. It was a weak start. Regina inclined her head. “Hey, so, I said before I was going to try, but it seems like I didn't try hard enough. I - Regina, you asked me on the phone how I was feeling. I'm really not OK, but that's not your fault. You have saved me in so many ways.” That was better. She tried to hang onto that thread, although Regina looked utterly indifferent. “You've sacrificed so much. You've tried so hard to be the one - the one we could rely on, and you've done it, you know. I've been thinking a lot,” here she laughed shakily. _Thinking_ was an understatement. She had relived it a million times over. “About what I said to you last month. Um, two months ago? Before I left. And I'm sorry I said that. It was cruel. You only did what you thought you needed to.” She paused, licking her lips with a tongue made of sandpaper.

“I am just - scared, Regina, and I feel like I can't trust anyone. My armor - made it so I don't need to. It protected me from the pain of broken trust.” She paused, thinking about how Regina had used her in Camelot, wondering whether that breach of trust and the unanswered questions that Emma had about her feelings could have played into the spiral she was now trying to crawl back from. Did it matter, anymore? At what point did Emma's brokenness lose relevance, in the big picture of their relationship? Compared to what Regina had done for Emma through the years, what was one week of physical and emotional rape? If that was what it had been. Maybe it did still matter. But Emma had fucked Regina after that, and it had been as good as it had in Camelot. In some ways it had been better. If Regina climbed into bed with her right now, Emma would consent. It was just that she could not have consented, under the command - not that she wouldn't have.

Emma thought she had already let that all go. Because regardless of how confusing her feelings were, she did know that she wanted Regina. She wanted closeness with her, every moment, the warmth of their kiss the morning after dinner, the seeping into each other that had happened under her command. Obviously, not the look Regina gave her now. The ice queen had returned, and Emma was on deep freeze.

At what point did Emma's brokenness lose relevance, in what was happening now - Regina's decision to conceive, and to risk herself and her baby to save Emma's life, and Emma's resultant abandonment of them both? Since she had come to Storybrooke, Emma had relished the chance to be the hero. Maybe it was the hero Regina loved. Not the broken person who lay just beneath. The person who would go to hell and back to _not deal with it._

“One good thing came of what happened in Hades.” Emma realized out loud. “Hades forced me to confront the absolute worst thing that could happen because of what we did, and I realized that it was losing you, both of you. That's what I kept dreaming. What Hades said - Regina, you should know it wasn't true. I never wished that any harm came to either of you. I think I need to stay focused on the endgame, you know?” She waited for Regina.

“Which is… what, exactly?” Regina seemed unimpressed by Emma's Herculean effort.

“You know.” Emma kept her eyes on Regina's for as long as she could.

“I think you're going to need to explain yourself a little more clearly.”

Emma blinked hard and turned her face away. Regina would not make this easy. It occurred to Emma again that Regina did not want her anymore.

Finally she looked back at Regina. “We still haven't talked about anything. Are we just going to keep going like nothing happened? What do you want, Regina? Do you want to go back to Camelot? Do you want to go back to the First Curse? Do you want to try, and see what we can make of it, now, now that everything's out in the open, and we both know what -” _What you wanted from me, and what I might want from you._ “I feel like I can see what could be, between us. I feel like it's so close, and we both just have to try for it to see whether it really could be.”

“Well,” Regina said. She got up and circled the chair. “I think this is because Henry wrote what happened between us, and it is not a pretty story. You're doing this for him.”

Emma shook her head. “No, I'm not. I'm really not.”

“Then you have some other distorted sense of obligation. What I did was my choice, Emma. I don't need you trying to make yourself available for me, or whatever it is that you're fumbling around trying to do. You made yourself clear when you left that this was a - this,” she indicated Emma and herself, “was not what you wanted.”

“I was scared, Regina.” Emma had the sense of plunging forward blindly. She wanted to say, _That's not fair of you to ask me. I need to know what we would look like before I know if I want it._

Regina's eyes for the first time showed the storm within. “I think you said exactly what you thought, that day. And you have the perfect right to think it.” Regina narrowed her eyes at Emma, and Emma was reduced to insignificance in that look. It was a familiar feeling. Maybe Regina was right. She had thought first of Henry, and then of Regina. After all this - after everything - Henry’s opinion was what had pushed her to confrontation.

Regina stood straight, releasing the chair. “I don't need you, Emma Swan.” Emma watched as she opened the door and marched out.

It was a well-deserved rejection. Although Emma had agreed to share Regina's spell, she had not been able to fully think through the consequences of it. Regina had. This must have been what Regina had planned for, once Emma slogged through all the complications to the heart of what happened.

But Regina had not started the conversation in Gold's attic with, _Don't worry, Emma, the minute we're out of this bed your obligation to me will vanish._ Maybe Regina had not, in fact, thought so little of Emma to consider that she might run. Not after figuring out that Emma did want her, for whatever reasons, in whatever way.

Emma remembered her smile when she met Emma at the door. She remembered what it was like to have that much happiness focused on you. Regina had not given up on her then. So this was a wall. It must be Regina's wall. Her own armor against Emma.

So how would Emma break through? She couldn't just ask Regina to dinner; although it had not gone too badly last time, Emma had made the situation dramatically worse since. No. It had to be something with more sustained effort. A daily reminder.

The biggest bouquet money could buy. One at Regina's doorstep, one on her desk at the town hall. Both accompanied by a note that just said, “Sorry.” A bran muffin, which was Regina's go-to, a glass of orange juice, which Regina hated but kept in the house for Henry, and one new pastry every day, just in case Regina got bored of the muffin. Also an electric kettle and seventeen varieties of tea, all with as much caffeine as tea could pack.

One week into her barrage, Emma found a note on Regina's desk that said, “Stop invading my space,” and after that she left the food outside Regina's office. She kept writing the meeting place and time on a card below, a new place every day, although Regina had not yet made any one of the meetings. Emma wouldn't hide this. The whole town could know that she was wooing the mayor. Soon they’d have something far more scandalous to discuss. Better to be up front, right now. It couldn't be too late.

Every night Emma waited an hour before driving home, defeated. Often she was relieved Regina didn't show up. The restaurants looked better online than in person. This _was_ the middle of the countryside.

Finally, she stopped leaving the notes and started showing up at Regina's doorstep. Henry got the door every time. “She's staying home tonight,” he told her.

“All right,” Emma said to him. “Need any help with your homework?” A poor excuse.

He always sent her away. The mayor's mansion was an impenetrable fortress. Henry was Regina's stalwart ally. Sometimes it felt ridiculous. Didn't Henry want Regina to be happy? Wasn't this what Emma should do, to make Regina feel like Emma deserved another chance?

Emma felt like she was wading through murky water. What would happen when - if - Regina caved? She had no idea what she'd say. She couldn't lead with an unmitigated “Yes.” That wouldn't be fair, when Emma had no idea what she was feeling. What about, “Hey Regina, I know we've already tried every position in bed, and you're three months pregnant with my kid, and we've known each other for five years of ups and downs, but your soul mate is finally out of the picture so let's go on some casual dates. I want to get to know you better.” What a joke.

In time, the shock Emma felt when she woke up faded. It wasn't recovery, exactly, but a slow reduction that leveled out in time, so that the horror show was just playing in the background, rather than imposing itself over her life. Emma didn't know how to recover. She wondered if she should visit Archie.

Snow and David didn't think of it. They assumed everything would be fixed by the magic of family dinners in front of a crackling fire, which only reminded Emma of their pyre in the horror movie. Baby Neal was an actual comfort, although Emma couldn't help but think of how easily Regina charmed him, compared to the actually endless struggle Emma endured on a daily basis trying to figure out what she termed “baby details.” The memories of raising Henry that Regina had implanted in Emma were worse than useless. So, this was training, right?

Snow had said Henry told them it was Emma's story to tell, but Emma did not feel the need to start down that path with her parents. Maybe that was what Regina was waiting for. If it was, she was going to need to wait a little longer. If she told them, she'd have to move back to her empty apartment, because while she could face the daily scolding about her nicotine habit, which she'd picked right back up without missing a beat, she could not face them every day once they knew what Henry knew.

She and Henry had never actually had a conversation after Hades. It seemed too hard to begin. There wasn't anything to say to Henry, except, “I'm busting my ass trying and I know I suck at it.” Then Emma would have to explain that yes, they'd done that, and yes, she knew Regina had been in love with her all along, and no, Emma could not in good conscience confess the same. There was nothing more heartshattering or unromantic as this thing. It was not a fairy tale, with a hero and a villain, and a happy ending. It was enough to break the Author’s pen.

Then, one morning, Emma was on her daily pilgrimage from the coffee shop to the town hall when her transport spell hit a brick wall and she appeared, rather than just outside Regina's office, outside the building. She reached out and hit a green membranous barrier that faded to transparent after repelling her attempt to breach it.

She turned back around and checked her phone for the time. There was a rare text message from Regina. Regina had typed in Emma's number from her contact book, and then typed every letter painstakingly, just to avoid calling her?

_Zelena and Hades are here. Meet at Snow’s._

Emma looked at her hands, filled with pastries and orange juice. It was insanely embarrassing. She disappeared them.

She squinted at the windows, seeing the shadow of Hades, backlit by the light in Regina's window because it was 6am and still essentially dark out.

Then she transported back home, wondering what Regina's plan was.


	11. Chapter 11

“There is a tunnel into the town hall. I will use it to get inside Zelena's barrier.” 

Regina was interrupted by a sharp snapping sound, and she winced, uncontrolled. Her face smoothed instantly, but not before Mary Margaret said, “What's that? What's wrong, Regina?”

Regina's eyes stayed on Mary Margaret. “A minor side effect from the banishing spell in February.”

“Why didn't you tell us? We could have helped you.” Mary Margaret's eyes met Emma's, probably just to include her in the “we,” but Emma looked away without thinking. 

She was panicking. To witness it happening again brought her back to the morning at Gold’s, and the suffocating dread she'd felt then. She'd imagined that Regina had found a solution to the overflow - although Regina had never said she planned to. 

Regina shook her head, dismissing Mary Margaret's concern. “I will take the tunnel, and I need the three of you to create a distraction while I go in there and start chopping.” Regina smiled a little, maybe looking forward to it.

“One,” Emma said, wiping her palms on her jeans. “I am going in with you. Two, do we know what they want? Maybe we can convince them to leave.”

“I think he's come for you, Emma,” Regina said. “He has something he thinks can defeat Excalibur, and he’s here to re-collect you.”

“Why didn't he send a fury, or… uhh… Hermes? And why is Zelena here?” 

Regina looked surprised. “You've done research.” Then she shook her head. “I don't know. I thought Zelena was out of the picture, but when I met her in the Underworld all she could talk about was Hades.” A smile ghosted over Regina's face. “I warned her not to eat any pomegranate.” 

“Right. It would trap her down there with him - but that's his kingdom. Why would he be here? What does he want?” Emma was frustrated. Would the problems never cease? Why, of all places, did shit always have to happen in Storybrooke? Maybe it was a hellmouth. 

In fact, it was right next to the River Styx. How had she not made the connection before? Now they just needed a petite vampire slayer to round it all out.

“Zelena is trying to take Storybrooke from Regina. It's the only thing that makes sense.” Mary Margaret was solemn. 

Emma said, “With Hades’s help? But why - why would he leave his kingdom?”

“We all know that the stories in Once Upon A Time do not always match the traditional tales.” Regina raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps Hades covets Zeus's kingdom of the earth.”

“Then the confrontation should be in Olympus,” Emma muttered. “Regina, will you give me Excalibur?”

Regina scoffed. “So you can try to find the entrance to the tunnel on your own?”

“Oh,” Emma said. Of course.  _ Damn.  _ “Well, let's go, I guess. Mom, Dad, I'll text you when we're ready, OK?”

Regina took her to the entrance, and they scrambled through the grating before the purple smoke dissipated. Inside, the tunnel was tall enough to stand in. Regina paused there, turning to Emma, and Emma froze, her insides boiling over in anxiety.

“Emma, are you sure that you are ready to face Hades again?”

Emma clenched her jaw. The boiling sensation had turned nauseous. “I will not let you go alone. Last time, I distracted Hades, didn't I?”

“Yes,” Regina said, frowning. She was unconvinced.

“Let me take Excalibur. If I kill him, it will set me free of this -” Emma shrugged her shoulders. She was making it up completely. She didn't want to ever see Hades again.

“You're just saying that because you think it's the more dangerous of the jobs.” 

Maybe it wasn't. Excalibur might be Hades's first target, but it would also be protection for its holder. “Regina, I will not let you put yourself,”  _ and that baby, our baby, _ “in danger.” The nausea turned into tears. Emma was falling apart in the tunnel. They hadn't even started walking. She hadn't even started saying what she wanted to tell Regina.

Well, she was crying anyway. “Regina, I swear I won't run again. I will always be here for you, no matter what. I believe in you, and I think we're better - it's always better - when I am with you. We can beat this, too. We can beat anything. Please, let me back in.”

Regina was impassive. “This is what you've been waiting to tell me?”

“I don't know what else to do,” Emma said. “I can't stop going back to Camelot.” There. It was out there, in the air between them. “I know it's crazy but I asked you what you wanted - well, I think that's what I want.”  _ That's why I kept giving you my dagger. I wanted your command, without owning what that meant for me. I don't want to date you. I don't want to figure out what this is. I just want to have you, no baby, no dagger, just the two of us sweaty in bed and not talking about it. _ “Please.”

Regina's eyes drifted down. She was considering it. Emma held her breath and sniffled. She conjured a Kleenex and blew into it, and then disappeared it.

“Let's see what Hades is doing here.” Regina held out her hand, and Excalibur appeared. She rested the tip on the ground and handed it to Emma, and Emma tried to lift it off the ground and failed the first time. 

Regina put her hands on Emma's arms, a soft look in her eyes. Emma could feel the glow of her magic where they touched. When Regina stepped away, Emma lifted Excalibur easily in one hand. “Thanks,” she said, sniffling again. 

They started walking down the corridor. Emma wracked her brain, trying to remember what else she had planned to say. Regina was silent, thoughtful, maybe. 

Finally, Regina said, “I feel like I am trapped. Emma, I have tried to be the hero.”

“You have been,” Emma said quickly.  _ You're still fucking evil, _ she'd said. Maybe that was the worst thing she'd told Regina. Had Regina held onto that piece, over everything else? She had not been sure that the solution she chose was the right one. She hadn't known whether it was the Evil Queen's idea, or her own. Emma cursed her own lack of intuition. Of course Regina still held onto her guilt. Emma had been so focused on her own problems that she had completely disregarded Regina's own struggle.

“Yes, well, it seems like all that's led to is suffering and loss. Every single time we confront another challenge, it is my own side battle not to give in. I let Robin take a sword for me. I barely fought back. I was too afraid of what I would do. Remember what you did to Henry and Violet? Emma, I thought of doing that, too. Can you imagine?” Regina scoffed, looking at Emma. “For you, the Dark One was separate from yourself. The Evil Queen will always be a part of me. And right now she's -” Regina cut off, exhaling sharply. “Before, it was worth it to fight her off. Right now I'm not sure I want to. She can - do anything. She  _ is _ stronger than me.”

Emma shook her head. “Go home, Regina. I can handle this.”

“You  _ can't,  _ Emma. And I can't imagine -” Regina stopped talking for a long moment. “What do you think, David and Mary Margaret will come and defeat this god? No. It has to be us.”

“Or Zeus,” Emma said. She stopped walking. “Regina, the worst thing that could happen if we turn around right now and walk away, is to lose Storybrooke. So fucking what? Who cares? It would be much worse to lose you.” 

Regina considered Emma. “You propose that we run?” 

“Yes. Absolutely, yes. We faced Hades once. He knows all our tricks. Whatever it looks like, Regina, I know that my future has you in it. You, not the Evil Queen. Better to lose Storybrooke. Maybe this isn't our battle to fight.”

Regina nodded slowly. “Where will we go?”

“All right.” Emma breathed deeply. “We go to New York, where it’ll be harder for them to find us. We'll get a few hotel rooms and try to contact Zeus, assuming he doesn't already know what Hades is up to. And we hide and wait it out.”

“Leaving everyone else behind?” Regina frowned. “I do have a responsibility for this town.” 

Emma did, too. “Fine,” Emma said. “We…” she thought hard.

“We open a portal using the Apprentice’s wand,” Regina realized aloud. “We reverse the curse and return everyone to the Enchanted Forest, where I can build us a new town to wait it out.” She turned toward the entrance of the tunnel. “We have to move quickly. Will you make the announcement? Doesn't David’s truck have that godawful speaker on it?”

“But who will contact Zeus, if we all go?”

Regina was practically sprinting in her high heels, and Emma trotted to keep up. “I can come back at any time, with the wand. We will take shelter and come back next week. That should be enough time to build the town. I know exactly the spell.”

“All right.” Emma was rapidly becoming convinced. They reached the grating, and Regina transported them straight back to Mary Margaret's. 

There was just one hitch. David and Mary Margaret cheerfully refused to leave. They shoveled baby Neal off on Emma, who everyone assumed was going with Regina. While the citizens of Storybrooke assembled on the street corner in front of the clocktower with their earthly possessions on their backs, the Charmings and the Dwarves stood, waving and grinning confidently, two blocks away. 

The announcement had been, “Hades is attacking Storybrooke. Portal to Enchanted Forest opens at 8am and closes at 8:05.” Emma had recorded it on her phone and then suffered through one thousand iterations of it in the hour before Regina opened the portal, driving circles along the streets of the tiny town, answering questions as she went, baby Neal wailing in the back seat, while Regina attempted to avoid giving David Excalibur without explaining why. 

Naturally, Hades showed up at 7:55 beside Regina where she stood with Henry. He had a white crystal. Emma was holding baby Neal in one hand and Excalibur in the other, a situation that felt far too familiar for comfort. It was a scene from the horror movie from hell.

Emma was paralyzed. Regina and Henry poofed away. The portal opened under Storybrooke's feet. Emma dropped Excalibur and held the baby tightly as they hit the forest floor.

The portal snapped shut above them, and she scrambled to her feet. Baby Neal was fussing, which was so familiar a sound as to fade into the background. Excalibur was beside her, so it made it through. Did Hades? Emma tried to find him in the mass of people who were slowly getting to their feet. 

“Regina!” she called. She closed her eyes, hoping - this wasn't something she was good at - and felt nothing, no sign of Hades's presence. She couldn't feel Regina, either. “Regina!” If Regina had opened the portal but stayed in Storybrooke to protect her parents, Emma would…

There she was, skirting the crowd, Henry tailing her. The portal had only been open for a few seconds. Emma left Excalibur where it was and ran to her.

“You're OK. My parents -”

“Made their decision to stay,” Regina said harshly. “I can't open another portal until tomorrow, and if I do I won't be able to cast the spell to make a village.” She looked at the crowd. “Half the number I expected,” she said. 

“Yeah,” Emma said. “A lot of people decided to drive away instead of coming with us.” Hopefully that accounted for the balance of the people. “What do you need?”

Regina's eyes fluttered. “To sit down. And for that baby to stop crying.” Emma looked helplessly down at Baby Neal, and Regina took him from her. The baby quieted instantly. 

Emma's eyes met Henry's, and Henry looked pointedly away from her. 

“Do you think I - I could use the wand?” Emma was not sure if she wanted to.

Regina ignored her, so instead Emma conjured three lawn chairs and tried to think of something else helpful to do. People had started sitting down in groups, and the more entrepreneurial of them started setting out in hunting groups. This was, after all, their home. Many had brought modern camping gear, which they began setting out. 

Some drifted over to her to ask for updates. There were tears. Lost relatives and friends. Emma hadn't noticed, but apparently the cell tower went out ten minutes before Hades crashed the party. 

Emma had not had a chance to process the magnitude of Regina's plan. Rather, Emma's plan, which Regina made work. To run, and not to fight. She imagined her parents and hoped they were running, too.

She conjured a table, which was lopsided, and four water jugs, only one of which was actually waterproof. The table dripped water until Regina noticed and repaired it.

Then she started on tents, big heavy army-grade enclosures that could sleep ten people. At least that had been the idea. Regina brought Baby Neal and Henry into the first one, and Emma could actually hear the cloth tearing as she repaired Emma's shoddy handiwork. As Regina's tent improved, Emma's tents rapidly became smaller, draftier, and more spottled. Finally she gave up, both disheartened and exhausted, and sat against the tree in front of what had evidently become Regina's tent. The flap was closed uninvitingly. She could hear Baby Neal gurgling, and sometimes Henry and Regina talking in low voices, indistinguishable with the background rumble of Storybrooke.

She hadn't noticed falling asleep, but she jolted awake at the sound of the flap opening. It was Regina. She had changed her clothes, and now wore a tan trenchcoat. It was nearly sporty. Emma’s eyes raked her body with something approaching desperation.  _ Back to Camelot, _ she thought fiercely, wondering how she would manage it.

“This sucks,” she said instead. 

“You overextended yourself,” Regina said to her. It wasn't a question.

Emma shrugged. “What are we going to do now, Regina?”

“Don't look to me,” Regina said, but she did offer her hand to Emma. After standing, Emma did not release her. The conversation in the tunnel felt like days ago, but it had only been a few hours. The noon sun beat down through the trees.

Regina did not pull away, and Emma melted into Regina's eyes.  _ Come on, _ Emma thought, hopes soaring. Her hands tightened around Regina's. She didn't know what she was hoping for.  _ Closer. More.  _ She wanted their bodies to touch. She wanted to hold her so tightly that their bodies were one. 

Henry broke the moment, bursting out of the tent to ask about lunch, and Regina pulled away and dealt with it. 

Emma stepped lightly that afternoon. Regina had not rejected her. Emma felt a consuming fire in her chest. She set up her own tent, which she'd packed in a hurry, and rolled out her sleeping bag, laying on top of it. Her mind was racing. She studied the tent ceiling. It was dusk. 

“Emma,” Regina said from outside the tent, and Emma unzipped it.

“Hey, sorry, just resting.”

Regina nodded silently. 

“What's wrong, Regina?”

“You want to go back to Camelot?” Regina asked. It was just a whisper.

“Yes,” Emma said. Her breath caught, and the next words were choked. “So badly.” And she waited.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No more updates for a few days (busy weekend)

It was not lovemaking, bodies moving softly, caresses that lasted for hours, tender and warm. It was closer to mating, each vying for dominance, harsh and fast and dirty, needy, feral. Emma was consumed in it, made fresh each time they pulled apart, and fractured and dissolved when they again met, insatiable. Emma had tried to stay quiet, but Regina told her she'd put a sound-proofing spell on the tent and after that it sounded exactly like what it was, two people on the brink of satisfaction, trying to find wholeness in touch, trying and failing to crawl into each other's bodies. Regina was menacing and so soft, and Emma kissed and bit and licked every piece of her skin. She wanted them to meet in every possible way, and when she kissed Regina it was sex and rush, fulfillment and hunger that nothing could satisfy, and then she was inside Regina again, and Regina's body moved into her touch, shuddering, _closer, deeper,_ and Emma's body exploded in ecstasy, just to touch Regina, just to have her making that sound.

For all that, it was not kinky. It didn't need to be anything other than what it was. When Emma spoke it was not fantasy. It was exactly what was happening, _So good, I need this,_ and Emma thought maybe she'd never said Regina's name with her inside, and made up for it tenfold. _I need to be inside you,_ when they had only paused to breathe, when Regina's eyes were so dark and she was flushed and smiling, and even when it was too much and she was crying, and Emma kissed the tears away and held her, _It's OK,_ and, _I'll never hurt you, baby, I'm here,_ words that Emma wanted to be true but knew Regina did not believe.

It was Camelot, and it wasn't. The bedding Regina had conjured was thick and soft. The tent’s walls were the extent of Emma's world. Sometimes it felt like healing, but mostly it felt like they were tearing holes in each other, and Emma had the insane thought that as long as they stayed so close, their wounds would close together. If they just stayed here, Emma would not have the chance to flip out and hurt Regina again. Everyone would be safe as long as they were locked together.

Emma felt words at the tip of her tongue, but she didn't know what they were. _This is all I want,_ she'd say, and Regina would roll her eyes. _Please stay here forever. I need this. You are perfect._ Regina listened and disregarded, and Emma was so afraid of something she didn't know, couldn't think, that Regina did not love her any more, that the soft vanilla lover of Camelot had been broken and was replaced by someone who wanted only bodies, only this. Back to Camelot. _Fuck._

And then the magic snapped Emma's belly where they touched, and Emma sat up on her knees, and Regina cursed, and it was so ugly and hurtful that Emma said, “I love you both, so much,” and hid her face against Regina's stomach, burning, regretting her words when she didn't know. Except that Regina stilled and put her fingers through Emma's hair, and then Emma slid down and buried her face between Regina's legs, remembering their baby's conception, wanting to run. Her tongue coaxed Regina into orgasm for the second time ever, which was so good and so bad, because maybe it was a lie torn from Emma to try to make this better, or maybe it was the truth that Emma had done such a bad job of acknowledging, and she had just put them through three months of hell when they could have been doing this.

Emma couldn't look at Regina, and Regina let her bury her face in her shoulder, kiss her neck and smell her hair. Their bodies rested together. Regina ran her hand up and down Emma's side and back, and Emma tried to breathe, silently begging Regina to say nothing.

“Henry will be suspicious. I should go.”

“Don't go.”

“Then come with me.”

Then Emma would have to look at her. She didn't want to. She moved up to bury her face in the pillow. Too much, too fast, and she had done this. Stupid. Her body hovered over Regina, tense, shaking with exertion and panic. Regina kissed her shoulder. “Salty,” she said, her voice low, and then kissed her chest and down to her breast, and Emma arched into her hands, into her mouth, willing the words to disappear back into their meeting, but Regina was not wild any more. She was soft, and the touch of her fingers was loving. Too much. Emma did this. Regina caressed her hips, teeth tugging gently at Emma's nipple, and Emma gasped, coming apart under Regina's fingers. She did not deserve this. Her heart thrilled, shivering, and Regina slid her hand along the curve of Emma's stomach and between her legs, and Emma let her, hating herself, loving the softness as much as the fierceness.

“So wet,” Regina moaned. Her voice was seduction.  She slipped between Emma's folds, grazing her clit, and Emma was so desperate that even the softest touch was a hot flame in her gut. Regina kept touching like that, and Emma stayed still, blind, letting Regina torture her, pleasure mounting rapidly toward release. Then Regina said, “Emma, I don't need you, but let's - let's share bodies, like this,” and it was such a smaller avowal than even the least of Emma's confessions, but Emma pulled away from Regina's touch, finally looking at her as she settled on her side. Regina turned to face her. She was frowning, and Emma bit back the urge to twist the knife. She had to run.

Regina whispered, “What are you so afraid of? Nothing has changed.” Emma nodded, squeezing her eyes shut. “If there was anyone that should be afraid, it should be me. I've never had a relationship that did not end in death.”

 _A relationship._ Right. At least Emma did not have to explain that she was afraid.

“I was going to leave,” Regina pointed out. “You asked me to stay. Why?”

 _All right. Communicate. Do not mess this up any more than you've already._ “What's going to happen when - when you leave? I don't know.” She couldn't regulate the fear in her voice. _I don't know what I will do._

“You’ll go to sleep, because it is past midnight,” Regina said softly. “And in the morning we will make food for everyone, and if you want, we will sit together with Henry and Neal. We won't tell Henry what happened tonight. And we will spend the day casting the spell for the village, because I need your help.” Emma grasped at that, one thing that Regina said that she needed. “Wednesday, we will go back to Storybrooke together and see what happened there.”

“Yeah,” Emma agreed. Her voice rasped. “OK, let's do that.”

They did. Alone together in Regina's tent the next day, Emma pressed herself against Regina's back and Regina arched, and she slipped her fingers into Regina's skirt and took everything she wanted. Would this be how life was, a blur of bodies and sex, fulfillment and longing? Could Emma really have this?

Henry was suspicious of their newfound closeness. He watched Emma, and Emma hoped that he would not approach her. She knew why she didn't want to talk to him. But why did he avoid her? Was it punishment, or was it a teenage boy’s embarrassment around any hint of his parents’ intimacy? Whatever it was, it was clearly more important than the reprimanding that would come when he got over it.

Emma wondered what the Author’s pen would write about them now. _And the Savior and the Evil Queen shared one night of intimacy. That night was all it took to make the Savior fall in love._ Or, _The Savior said everything the Queen wanted to hear, but when the baby came the Savior was long gone, a Savior no longer, but a coward that refused to fight for what she wanted._ Or maybe, _The last component of the Evil Queen’s spell was finally ready. She harvested the Savior's heart that night._

Regina kept Baby Neal and Henry with her in the largest building of the village, really a shanty. It did have a living room and three bedrooms, and Emma transported directly into Regina's room at 9pm sharp, making Regina jump and scold her for her rudeness. Emma was pleased with herself. Her transportation spells were not normally that accurate.

“Sorry,” Emma said. “Not sorry.” She kissed Regina, relishing Regina's skin through thin silk.

She brought their bodies together, pushing Regina into the side of the bed, and Regina acquiesced completely to the touch. How familiar this intimacy could be. It was so easy. Because of Camelot, or because it was Regina, who Emma knew so well that years ago she'd started reading small signs of frustration or exhaustion or pain in her face before Regina recognized them in herself? Her closest ally, and her bitterest enemy, tied up in a body that was so beautiful as to be captivating - how could Emma not already have her memorized?

Despite the fact that Emma had Regina against the bed, Regina dominated their kiss. It started at Emma's pace, but Regina quickly escalated, putting her arms around Emma's shoulders, making her body fully available to touch. She nipped Emma's lips and invaded her mouth with her tongue, and Emma worked her fingers around the bottom of Regina's night dress. Regina laughed at her. “Feeling a little hesitant?”

“I love how this dress feels on you,” Emma confessed.

“Mmm, well, I am a bit sore,” Regina murmured. And she turned Emma around so she was against the bed, instead. Regina's eyes were bright with happiness, and Emma smiled back at her, hoping against hope for everything.

* * *

Emma could hear Regina whispering in the adjoining bathroom. She untangled herself from the blankets, pulling on her tank top, and padded over to the door, knocking softly.

The whispering stopped, and then Regina opened the door.

Emma took her in. Her eyes betrayed exhaustion.

“What are you doing?”

Regina hesitated. “A spell.”

“What kind of spell?”

“For… her, the baby.”

It seemed that Emma could only ignore the baby's existence for a few hours at a time. But she couldn't back down now. “To control the, um, overflow?” she asked hesitantly.

Regina put one hand on the basin-table, leaning against it. “No,” she said. She searched Emma's face, and Emma tried to remove any sign off trepidation from her expression. “To let her know she's not alone.”

“Oh,” Emma said. She breathed to control the panic. This was a person, however small - not just the Dark One and the Light One, wrapped together into one mortal shell. Emma had not in a million years thought that Regina had been communicating with the baby. If Emma pretended that it was just Regina, standing there, she could suppress the memory of the torture she had endured with the dark and the light inside her. She could love Regina if she forgot that the battle raged on, in Regina's body, in their daughter.

But Emma had to stop running. “That's - good, it's a good idea. You can talk to her?”

“Not really,” Regina said. She smiled, but her gaze was somewhere else. “Not yet.”

“Regina… can I do it, too?”

Regina looked at her, inscrutable. Finally, she said, “Yes.”

Emma went on her knees on the hard wooden floor and held Regina's hands. Regina guided them to rest on her belly. Emma had not touched her body like this since Gold’s. She remembered the happiness she'd felt then. Now it was a mess of five hundred different emotions.

The incantation was Latin, and Emma focused on the mechanical problem of pronunciation. It took a long time, but Regina was patient.

Finally she felt it. The presence was immense. Emma fell backwards, catching herself before she landed on her back. The connection snapped away. “What the fuck is that?” she said, panting. “Holy hell, Regina, what is that?”

Regina raised her eyebrows and her lip twisted. “Is there a problem, Emma Swan?”

“Is that a fucking god?” Emma asked her, scrambling to her feet.

“Well,” Regina said. “I don't really know.” She leaned into Emma and kissed her lips. Emma kissed her back, distracted. “We should lay down.” Emma opened her mouth, and Regina put her finger across it. “No more talking until you are holding me,” she said, and Emma nodded and followed her to bed.


	13. Chapter 13

Mary Margaret, David, and the Dwarves were not in Storybrooke. Neither were Hades and Zelena. The protection spell over the town hall was broken, too, and in Regina's office they found a pile of ashes. Regina examined them for only a moment before turning to Emma, her lip twisting. “Zeus must have gotten the memo.”

“No way,” Emma said. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. The question is, where is my sister? And your parents,” she added, almost as an afterthought.

“Um…” Emma had no idea what to do, but Regina poofed them to Mary Margaret's and found Snow’s cape, the blue one from the Enchanted Forest. “This is how we found you in Camelot,” she said, and spun the Apprentice’s wand.

A neat portal appeared, standing independent of the walls. Emma reached out to open it, and just as her hand closed around the knob, the door flew open. Out stumbled David, followed by Mary Margaret, a small, mousy man, and -

“Zelena?” Regina was taken aback. “What are you -”

A hand appeared through the portal.

“Quick, close it!” David said, and together they pushed the door closed before the owner of that hand caught up to them. “Man, that was close,” David said. “Thanks, Regina.”

Regina frowned. “Yes, but next time, don't just go through any portal that happens to appear.”

“It couldn't have been worse than where we were. Hyde -”

“It could have,” Regina said. “Who is Hyde?”

Emma answered her. “Dr. Jeckyll's alter ego,” she said, offering the mousy man her hand. He shook it with wet palms. “Great to meet you.”

Regina turned to Zelena, who was visibly pregnant. “What happened?”

* * *

Emma was running late for Belle’s party. The minute she walked through the door, Snow handed Baby Neal to her. Snow was already three drinks in, and nearly stumbling.

It took far too long, nearly ten minutes, for Emma to wade through the opportunistic partygoers. The town had easily and happily returned to Storybooke, and in the past week everything reverted nearly back to normal, with one glaring exception.

“Hey,” Emma said shyly, sliding in beside Regina in the corner booth. Regina wore a black shirt with transparent netting from her bra to her neck. It showed a tasteful glimpse of her cleavage, which immediately mesmerized Emma.

“Why are you here?” Henry asked her, scowling.

The confrontation was interrupted by a timely Belle, who dropped into the seat next to Henry with two cocktails in hand. “I got your Manhattan,” she told Regina, sliding the fluted glass across the table.

Regina declined with a brief gesture. Emma's hand that was not holding Baby Neal intercepted the drink. “I will -” she cut off, meeting Regina's look. “Definitely not be having that,” she finished, withdrawing her hand.

“Thanks, Belle,” Regina said, her voice low. Emma could not keep her eyes off her breasts.

Belle pulled the glass back to her. “So,” she said, spinning the two glasses on the table. “Things seem different between you two, since we came back from the Enchanted Forest. What happened? If you don't mind me asking.”

Henry shifted uncomfortably. Regina said, “Nothing has changed. Why?” Emma occupied herself with the baby, cooing at him. He scrunched up his face in irritation.

“Just something feels different,” Belle said. “You’re both happier and, dunno, it feels… better.” She narrowed her eyes, clearly not as drunk as Snow.

“Better?” Regina repeated. “Yes, I suppose so.” The silence lingered.

“Happy birthday, Belle,” Emma said.

“Thanks,” Belle said. “I suppose I should find someone to drink this Manhattan.”

“Emma will,” Henry said, raising an eyebrow in a distinctly Hook-like expression. His eyes told Emma, _Go away._

As if he hadn't caught Emma in the bathroom at Regina's three mornings this week. Emma shifted, looking down at Baby Neal, who had started fussing. She felt the sudden need for a cigarette. The full pack in her jacket pocket glowed invitingly.

“Regina, you don't have a drink,” Emma said when Belle was safely away. “Want some juice or chocolate or anything?”

Regina shook her head. Unusually quiet. Had Emma made the wrong choice, to come here and sit with them?

Emma tried again.“You look totally… stunning. That shirt.”

“Thank you, Emma,” Regina said. “Will you try to quiet that baby?”

The baby took the opportunity to unleash a truly hellish scream. “I… am,” Emma said helplessly. She stood, accepting defeat. “I'm gonna give him to David.”

Henry found her outside three minutes later, in the dark corner table with the ashtray. This was her fourth today, which felt like a victory, except that she had the feeling that the night would erase all her progress. She was frustrated. If Regina didn't want to talk with her, why shoot the death glare over the drink thing? Did Belle's inquiry throw her off? How could Emma try to do the right thing when Regina continued to make it so difficult?

Henry sat in the garden chair beside Emma, and Emma stubbed out the cigarette instantly, pushing the ashtray away from them both.

“Hey, kid,” Emma acknowledged, slouching down into herself. As if the night couldn't get any worse. It could.

“I feel like… I don't know who you are,” Henry started by plunging directly in. “I thought I did. And then you changed so much. I was so excited that my birth mom was like… you, a hero, the Savior. And the past few months have made me realize that maybe it was just - just wishful thinking.”

“It's complicated, Henry,” Emma said when he paused. “You're right that I messed up, big time. But someone who can be a hero in some things, can be the worst coward in others. This is my kryptonite, I guess. But it's something I'm trying to face now.”

“You're 'facing’ it? What, being in love? It shouldn't be a chore. My mom is the - the most incredible woman.” He was choking up. “She deserves someone like Robin, who knows it, and treats her like it, instead of doing everything halfway.”

That was a low blow. Emma took a second to try to recover. She felt the pack in her pocket and wished she didn't care about second-hand smoke, because was this ever a conversation that necessitated nicotine.

“And you know what else? You always said you gave me away to give me my best chance. I believed that. But you were ready to just - leave her, and that makes me think maybe you were just scared, and that's why you did it.”

“Is there something wrong with being scared, Henry?” Emma looked at her own hand, loose in her lap. “Couldn't it be both?”

“I'm glad you did it. Regina is the only mom I need.”

“Jesus Christ, Henry, enough. I'm really trying, I am. What else should I do?” She was making Regina happy - Belle saw it, and why couldn't Henry? Emma had tried to sit with her at a public event. Maybe she hadn't exactly told everyone they were dating, but a public spectacle would be ludicrous. Should she kiss Regina dramatically? Should she propose marriage? This thing between them was a private affair, now, and in its own time it could become known.

Henry looked at her a long time, and she was worried he wouldn't give her anything. But he did. “Her first ultrasound with Whale is tomorrow and you've got to go with her." Insanity. Why hadn't Regina told her? How did Henry know? "It's at ten so meet her at her office at 9. She was going to leave from there to get me. I'll text her to go with you instead.”

A secret sneaky plan. Emma tried to smile, although she was finding it difficult to breathe. “Yes, sir,” she said.

He didn't smile back. “And tell Grandma and Grandpa.”

“All right,” she said. They had been teasing her about a new boyfriend. “Like, everything, or just…”

“At least about the baby, Mom. Emma.” He looked confused. “They should know what Mom did to save you. You should have told us right away.” He scowled at her.

There were so many reasons they hadn't. Emma searched for the words to explain.

She was interrupted by an otherworldly sound. The ground was shaking. She looked around, but it was Henry who grabbed her arm and directed her gaze - of all things - skyward.

It was a zeppelin, moving far faster than was reasonable, or, Emma suspected, possible through the application of the basic laws of physics. Unfortunately or fortunately, it seemed to be headed both north and distinctly earthward.

Regina appeared in a puff of smoke in the middle of the courtyard, searching for the source of the sound. She was followed in the blink of an eye by her sister. The aircraft was already out of sight.

“A zeppelin,” Emma told them. “What the hell?”

“Hyde,” Jekyll said from the balcony. His statement was punctuated by the sound of a distant explosion.

“I thought he was dead,” Regina said.

“Not in the slightest,” Zelena told her.

“Why - never mind,” Regina returned. Her eyes met Emma's. “Can you find them?”

“I can try. Zelena, why did you run from him?”

“I think he can resist magic,” Zelena said. “He's remarkably strong.”

“And clever,” Jekyll added. He joined them on the ground. “He has come in our dirigible, hasn't he?”

“Dirigible?”

“Come on, guys,” Henry said, hefting his now-everpresent backpack. “Let's get him.”

Regina snapped, “ _We_ will go after him, Henry. You will stay here.”

It took a few hours to find the crash site. By the time they did, it had been entirely evacuated - an ominous sign.

 _The clash of blades. A hooded figure. Her hands were shaking - the sword, through her leg._ Emma shook off the vision, but one thing did remain. Her hands continued to shake uncontrollably. What did it mean?


	14. Chapter 14

By the time they had left the wrecked dirigible it was already 2am, and Emma spent the balance of the night lurking outside the town hall, waiting for the dawn. Regina had barely looked at her during their search of the vessel and the surrounding forest, and Emma did not feel the urge to push her. Or maybe Emma was just running again. Running by standing still.

When Regina pulled away, what should Emma's reaction be? To let her go, or to try to pull her closer? Emma had never found herself in the position of needing to demonstrate her own affection when a lover withdrew from her. Hook was never like this. Past boyfriends who caused this type of trouble became exes without further ado.

What Regina needed was for Emma to show her that she wasn't afraid. How could she do that, when she was literally trembling in terror? A fucking ultrasound. Emma's worst nightmare. It could have been in Hades's picture show. Combined with the vision that had so unexpectedly gripped Emma - the vision, which had had the note of finality to it, although Emma couldn't explain why - it was enough to keep Emma awake regardless of where she was.

So she might as well be here, watching the dawn slowly break over the night’s mist, degree by degree turning darkness into daylight. Emma wasn't even tired. She wasn't anything but a voice, screaming in silence. Was this a fit of angst, unwarranted and inappropriate? Was she the kind of narrator that could fill pages with an incessant internal monologue broken only by pacing, back and forth, forward and backward, slipping down a slope, spinning back into a spiral of self-destruction and the obliteration of everything she had just worked to build? Whatever that was. How could this fight ever be worth it?

Regina’s car pulled into the empty lot at 7:07 and Emma watched her gather her papers and get out. She caught the brief hesitation when Regina saw her standing there. But she didn't flinch. She walked with determination straight to Emma.

Emma opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Regina tipped her head toward the door, and Emma watched her unlock the building with hands that were far steadier than Emma's. She walked with Regina up the stairs in what amounted to a stunned silence.

“Henry,” Regina said when she had settled at her desk.

“Sorry,” Emma blurted, a nonsense word. She was relieved that Regina had figured out why Emma had been waiting for her. Relieved and embarrassed. It occurred to her for the first time that it was Henry's assumption that Regina even wanted her to come at all. She'd asked Henry - not Emma.

Regina waited in apparent patience for coherence to return to Emma. Emma walked to the window and placed her hands on it. The window fogged around her fingers.

“Can I stay here this morning?” Emma asked her finally.

“Yes,” Regina said.

“Great,” Emma said, and collapsed into a chair. _No drama. Please. Great._

“Does the sheriff's department have any plans for dealing with the invaders?” Regina asked her humorously.

“The… invaders?” Emma repeated, mind blanking. “Oh. Right.” She hadn't even thought about it. “I guess we wait for them to show themselves. Right?”

“What I have understood from Jekyll is that they are likely the inmates from his penitentiary.”

“The Land of Untold Stories,” Emma said. “Whatever that means. A city contained in his basement.”

“Hiding from themselves,” Regina said. “I am not worried about them. If they can't even face their own fates, they will be no threat to us.”

Emma thought about that. Regina spoke with contempt, but the truth was a little more complex, wasn't it? “Maybe they knew how their stories would end. Maybe they weren't ready.” _Excalibur, clattering onto the pavement._ Emma clenched her fists.

“Then we shall hope that they are ready now,” Regina said, eyes dancing.

“Yeah,” Emma said, falling into a melancholy stare. Exhaustion crept up unexpectedly.

“I have a report to finish,” Regina informed her.

“Oh,” Emma said, sitting forward. “OK.” She realized it was a dismissal a second later, as Regina fished out a stack of papers and began writing. Did she even have a laptop? Emma realized that she had no idea.

Who the hell did Regina write reports to? Herself? Emma did sometimes write summaries of arrests for Regina. Very official. The justice department of a town in unincorporated county that didn't appear on any maps, staffed by two self-styled sheriffs who based standard operating procedure upon cop movies. Emma had the feeling that Regina only asked for the reports so that she had something to do during the day. Although she did sometimes grumble about public works. Maybe public works had a more official organizational structure. The sewers and power kept running somehow.

Emma sat back and slouched down so that her head could rest against the back of the chair, closing her eyes. Hoping that Regina would not bring her this morning. That they just wouldn't talk about it at all, and Emma could sleep here all day.

* * *

Regina had transported them. Somewhere. It didn't matter where. Emma's eyes were shut tightly. She gripped Regina's collar with hands that shook. Their faces were cheek-to-cheek, and tears mingled. She didn't know whether she clung to Regina, or if she was shaking her. And Regina held her back, maybe to comfort her, or maybe to stay upright.

Regina's body sobbed soundlessly, and the movement evoked another wave of tears from Emma. Her heart broke and hardened. She bit back words. _You did this. This was your idea. It would have been me that died but guess what? Now it will be you, and whatever that is, growing inside you._

To feel the baby's magical presence was one thing. It was, maybe, a good thing. But to see that machine break, when it touched Regina's skin - it had scared them both. Whale had apologized profusely and brought in another one. And Emma had leaned forward and held Regina's hand tightly, being strong, holding her cool, against the odds. Smiling, because Emma could so easily make this better, just by smiling. And looking at Regina meant she was looking somewhere other than her bare stomach, with the smallest, slightest swell.

The second machine had lasted long enough to show - nothing that could possibly be a baby. A blot of just - darkness. The darkness crept out to the edges of the frame, and the second machine broke, too.

And now they were here. Emma moaned her misery, and Regina kissed her lips. Emma pulled away, not looking at her, and Regina's hands returned Emma's gesture, grasping Emma's collar. She put her forehead on Emma's. “The machine malfunctioned,” she said.

“Yeah,” Emma said, knowing that they both didn't believe that. Regina shouldn't be the one to comfort Emma. It should be the other way around.

“Everything else is normal. It is - my spell should have worked.”

“It did work,” Emma said. “We can feel her.” _She is alive. She's a person._ She finally opened her eyes to meet Regina's. They were bloodshot, chocolate brown, to die for. Regina had brought Emma to her room in the mansion.

Emma kissed her. She slid her hands down and grabbed Regina's hips through the thin material of her suit pants. The swirling hatred in Emma coalesced into the desire to control. “I am going to have you begging,” Emma growled at her. Regina met her eyes with a frown.

Emma's phone began ringing for the fifth time that hour, and Regina pulled away slightly. Maybe Emma’s aggressiveness was unwelcome.

Emma sighed and turned away. “I'm running outside for a sec. To take this call.” _To smoke._ Emma didn't have to say it.

“Who's calling?”

“David,” Emma told her. She was already halfway down the stairs. Her pack was in her hands. She picked up the call, but didn't say anything until the cigarette was lit.

“Dad,” she said.

“Where have you been? Hyde is sitting at the mayor's desk and he um, is actually really strong.” David had tried to arrest him already.

“Oh, jeez, dad. You heard what Jekyll and Zelena said about him. You should have waited for us.”

“You're with Regina? Good. Jekyll says he can make another stun gun from the wreckage. Can you meet us there? Bring Regina.”

“Um, sure. But maybe Regina will come a little later, I think. She's, um, busy.” Emma shouldn't come, either. She lit a second cigarette, inhaling with a passion. It was the second to last in the pack. She needed to buy another one. Right away.

When she reentered Regina's room, Regina was on her phone. “Hyde,” Regina said. They must have texted her, too.

“They're going to the zeppelin. Jekyll says he can make a gun to incapacitate Hyde.”

“Good,” Regina said. “I am going to my vault.”

“Do you want me there?”

“That's ok,” Regina said, eyes soft. “Meet your parents. I will be there shortly.”

“Sure,” Emma said, relieved. She stopped in the drug store on the way.

She beat her parents to the zeppelin despite the pit stop. They had to walk nearly a mile from the road. She poked through the wreckage, hoping that the vision wouldn't come again.

It did, anyway. She caught a glimpse of a red bird in flight when she was able to shake it off. She could still feel the sword in her gut. Who was under that hood? Where was Regina, in the vision? Exhaustion made it impossible to fight the debilitating trembling in her hands.

The rest arrived, and Jekyll described what he needed. They climbed through the ship, poking through abandoned belongings. It was obvious to Emma that the trespassers had returned to the ship after they'd left last night.

Regina appeared only a short time after. Rather than her usual fitted yet sensible suit, she wore a sparkling black dress. Her hair was coiffed.

“Regina,” Emma greeted her. Her hands shook.

“Emma,” Regina smiled with a particular quality. It was, maybe, a sneer. She walked to them, hips swaying. “David,” she said, and reached directly into his chest, withdrawing the half heart within.

“Woah, Regina, what?” David stumbled backward.

“Do you know how many years I have waited for this?” Regina snarled.

“What are you doing?” Emma grabbed her arm. Had this been the breaking point for Regina? It made no sense.

“No, Emma. That's for later.” Regina disappeared, reappearing a short distance away from them. She leveled her gaze at Snow. “It was fine, to have him sleeping forever. But then he woke up. I can't believe how long I've allowed you to be happy together. I need you to feel everything I have always felt. Alone.”

David's heart fell to dust. And then another Regina appeared there, in the clearing. Wearing the same black pants and red shirt she'd worn that morning. David’s body thumped onto the ground, and Snow sobbed, pulling at his motionless body. It was the only sound in the clearing for a long, long moment.

“You used the serum… on yourself?” Jekyll was the first to speak.

“Kill her, Regina,” Emma said. The Evil Queen started cackling.

“Emma,” Regina whispered. Regina was in the same state of absolute despair as she had been in the room. What had happened? Emma walked through the motions of logic. She'd used the serum. To split herself, like Jekyll and Hyde, into a light half and a dark. But unlike the men, Regina was -

“She can't kill me,” the Evil Queen said. “And neither can you. Not if you want to keep your precious bundle of joy.” Her hand rested on her stomach. Regina's baby. Emma turned to the other Regina, who nodded.

She was only a few steps away. Emma had her arms around Regina, her hand - there - nothing, nothing at all. “How?” She was numb with shock.

“I should have realized, Emma. What you said - the light will never let the darkness go.”

“But you're here. Regina, we should still have our baby. Without the dark and the light.” She knew she was revealing everything, with Snow and Jekyll listening. _Fuck it._ David was dead. Disaster had stricken again, and this time the body was at Regina's feet.  

“We don't,” Regina said. “Emma, I thought with us both split apart, I could, use Excalibur -” To kill the dark half, of course. To destroy the darkness they'd seen in the ultrasound, and save the baby.

“It should have worked,” Emma told her, trying to keep hold of normalcy.

“I'll leave you to it,” the Evil Queen said. “But I'll be back for you.” She looked at Emma, gaze electrifying. “Everything in this town is mine. I made it, and I will take it. Especially you, my _Savior._ ” She disappeared.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Magic dildo that comes close to girl penis this chapter. If this grosses you out just skip the second half.

David's body was at the coroner's. A surprise to all of them was that he wasn't alone. Gold’s body was also there, and a sobbing Belle. They brought her with them to Snow’s. She had no idea what happened to Gold, only that he had died in bed, maybe suffocated.

Henry sat with his shoulders hunched between Emma and Regina on the bench. They both held him tightly, from either side. Snow sat with Belle. The room felt empty. Henry was the only man left. Emma almost wanted to take Regina away from the room, to privacy. Regina couldn't grieve here. Without grieving, there would be no forward movement. And toward what would they move? Emma could not conceive what their next step must be.

“I - am so sorry,” Regina said, as if on cue. She stood, straightening her pants. “This is all my fault. I owe you an explanation, Snow.”

Mary Margaret's eyes drifted up to Regina, but there was no life in the look.

“For years, I - kept my battle to myself. I fought her, my evil side, off. This,” she indicated her own body. “This is the Regina you know. _She_ is - Snow, you know my evil half better than anyone. You know what she is like, and what she'll do. I thought that I could kill her with Excalibur, when we split. But,” here she breathed tightly.

Emma stood and put her arm around Regina. Mary Margaret's eyes followed the movement, and a wrinkle appeared on her forehead.

Emma straightened her spine. “Mom, there's something that I've needed to tell you for a long time.” Regina's arm wrapped around her stomach and her hand went over Emma's. “Remember that boyfriend you've been asking about? It's Regina. We’ve been involved for months. Since… since Robin died.” That was simplest.

“Oh,” Snow said. She sat back. Her eyes were only slightly more alive. Belle was also listening intently.

“Regina… adapted? A spell…” Emma fumbled for the explanation.

Regina interrupted. “Do you remember the banishing spell in March? There was another side effect, one I didn't tell you about. It was a baby. I was pregnant.”

“Was?” Belle spoke up.

“When we split, the baby did not. She is with the Evil Queen. That was why I could not kill her.” Regina looked at Emma, eyes hard. So even without the Evil Queen, Regina could be harsh.

Emma held her tighter. She was closing off, protecting herself. Emma would not allow the doors to close on her. “We will get her back,” she said. “Can we accelerate her pregnancy?”

Regina looked angry. “Absolutely not. I must find a way to join back with her. This was my battle to fight. I can hold her off. To have her out in the world - it is too dangerous, regardless of the baby.”

“Oh,” Emma said. “OK.” That was the next step. To keep ahead of the Evil Queen long enough that Regina figured out how to join herself back together.

Emma's attempt to stay within Regina's self-protective walls had failed spectacularly. She released Regina, and Regina took a step away from her, turning to look at Henry. He still sat on the bench, a slight smile on his face for Emma.

“Robin’s baby?” It was Snow. Her eyebrows had slowly risen to nearly meet her hair.

Emma couldn't help but smile at the look. “No, Mom,” she said. Somehow, in this moment, she felt proud. “Mine.” Robin’s filthy semen had nothing to do with it.

Regina must have heard the note in Emma's voice, because she looked at her with a smile, opening up a little. Emma had approached the baby as something other than a problem.

She still wished Regina would allow her to accelerate her pregnancy. Hades's vision, of the dragon ripping itself from Regina's body, loomed over them. For the first time since she'd found out that it was not Merlin's spell, Emma felt like Regina might be safe. Her body was no longer shared.

Emma's hands itched to touch Regina. She would be so soft. Emma wanted to pull her head back with her hair and bite her neck. She'd unbutton her pants and fuck her with one finger, letting her need more without giving it to her. She could already feel the wetness overflow and soak her hand. She'd only give enough to keep Regina on the edge, building up without any form of satisfaction. She imagined how Regina would whimper and shake, begging for more, but helpless with Emma holding her there. She actually took a small step toward her, before Belle said, “Gross.”

Emma looked at her. “What?”

“Bedroom eyes.”

“No,” Emma protested, but Regina had backed away from her, resting a hand on the counter. “What do we do next?”

“I need to go to my vault. Again. But Henry,” and Regina turned to Henry. “Henry has an event to prepare for.”

Henry was turning red.

“The summer school formal,” Regina told Emma with a smile. “And he has a date.”

“Mom,” Henry protested.

“How is that a thing?” Emma asked, feeling totally left out.

“What would you propose? A casual dance? Where's the dignity in that?” So Regina had set the tradition.

“I give up,” Emma said. “When is it, kid?”

“At seven,” Henry said. “But I'm meeting my date at six at Granny's.”

“I'll bring you home to dress?” Emma asked him.

“OK,” he said. “But I don't have a tie.”

“Oh,” Snow said. “Come back here before you leave and I will have David's ties out.”

And then Emma would stay here, with Snow, that night. Emma had barely spent time here since they returned from the Enchanted Forest. It seemed that was about to change.

They were eating take-out Chinese when Regina walked through the door. Henry had already been gone for an hour.

“Remember my plan with the mirror?” Regina smiled triumphantly. “It worked. I've trapped her inside the world beyond the mirror. Now we have time.”

“Oh,” Emma said, standing partially up. Regina had told them the idea while they were helping Henry pick out a tie, but it had seemed like a long shot. “You confronted her already?”

“Why not?” Regina arched an eyebrow.

“I thought we… would do it together,” Emma said uncertainly. “Like we usually do.”

Regina waved her hand in a somewhat grandiose dismissal. “I think we have some unfinished business,” she said, grabbing Emma's hand. Snow and Belle were just watching them. “Come along.”

Of course. They hadn't had a chance to be alone since this morning’s series of disasters. Emma said, “I’ll be right back,” and before she finished the last word they were back in Regina's room in the mansion.

Emma reached out and put her hand on Regina's waist, and then they were kissing, hard and feral. Emma had not known whether they would talk first, but Regina’s kiss decided it. The lust that had gripped Emma earlier returned. She put her hand in Regina's hair and pushed her to the wall. Safe, now. Just the two of them. She unfastened Regina's pants, remembering this morning. Wanting to control. Regina should remember that it was Emma she should answer to. “You're mine,” Emma growled. It had been far too long since the night before, since Emma had tasted Regina.

Regina gasped and arched, offering her body, and Emma ran her hand up from her underwear to her breast.

And then she paused, releasing Regina's hair. Her hand returned to Regina's stomach, pressing there. There was no doubt.

“You want _me,”_ the Evil Queen said. “My Emma.”

“What did you do to her?” Emma asked her. Emma turned to the mirror on the wall. “You trapped her.”

“She is a pale shadow. Let her go,” the Evil Queen said. “I have your baby. I'm the only one willing to do what it takes. Emma,” she said, running her hand down Emma's arm. “She was always so afraid to let me loose. But you're lucky she has. Regina would never have what it takes to defeat Hyde.”

“You killed my dad!”

“Oh, well,” the Evil Queen said. “That was coming for a long time.”

“You were hoping I'd just forget about it? You killed him _this morning._ We have been mourning all day!”

The Evil Queen sighed. Her hand closed around Emma's wrist, and when she released her there was a bracelet on Emma. The magic-suppressing bracelet. Regina - no, the Evil Queen, someone else entirely - reached into Emma's chest. And then they were outside the vault.

“Come along,” the Evil Queen said. “I have a room here that's been waiting for us.” Her command pulled Emma with her, through the front door, into a dank and dreary room to the side. There was a bed in the room. A very Evil Queen bed. It looked like Camelot. It _was_ Camelot, over again. Emma wondered if she would ever escape it.

She took Emma's jacket off and then disappeared her clothes, leaving nothing but the bracelet on Emma. Where had she put Emma's heart? It was gone, too. Regina was wearing nothing at all. Not Regina, Emma remembered.

“We both know what you want,” the Evil Queen purred. She brought Emma's hands up to her breasts, and Emma brushed her nipples with her fingertips. There was nothing she could do, anyway. To escape this. And despite herself she was trembling. Hating Regina had never stopped her before.

“You are going to fuck me,” the Evil Queen told her.

“I will lick you until you come apart,” Emma whispered.

“Later.” Regina proofed them into the bed, straddling Emma, her wetness hot against Emma's stomach, already riding her, and Emma closed her own legs and rocked, seeking stimulation. “You want this. _I'm_ the one you want.”

Emma turned her head and saw a mirror on the wall. She stopped.

The Evil Queen turned her face back up. “Inside, Emma,” she begged. “I need you to fill me.”

“No,” Emma choked. She was so hot and slick against her stomach, and Emma could almost feel her rippling already.

Regina slid back, along Emma's body, pushing her legs down. Emma watched her as she slid her fingers between Emma's legs, and her hips jerked up to the touch. “You want this so badly,” the Evil Queen said. “But I need you inside. What are we going to do?” She looked up, grinning wickedly. She held up her hand and something appeared in it. A double dildo? But it didn't quite look like a sex toy from a shop. “I can't believe I hadn't thought of this before. Open your legs.”

She wasn't actually holding Emma's heart. Emma shook her head, throbbing in need, knowing that Regina must be watching them. She couldn't betray her. This was the Evil Queen. She just killed David. And she looked… exactly like Regina.

Emma's heart appeared in her other hand. “Open your legs,” she repeated, and Emma did, relieved. The Evil Queen did not wait. She didn't work the head of the toy around Emma. She just pushed it in, so hard that Emma gasped before moaning.

And then she touched the shaft, and another wave of sensation hit Emma. She could feel the touch. Magic. A fucking magic dildo. Her eyes rolled back and her hips rocked, and the Evil Queen moaned with her, stroking along the length. “That feels so good, doesn't it? Can you imagine what it will feel like with me around it, squeezing you?”

Emma's inner walls clenched around the toy. “Please,” she begged. Her mind had narrowed to this one moment, this one thing. If Regina stroked her one more time, she would come, no questions asked on morality or faithfulness. 

The Evil Queen withdrew her hand. “Do you need a moment?”

“No,” Emma grated. It was ingenious. Emma might have resisted putting her fingers in Regina, but this? Her hips thrust into empty air, and then the Evil Queen positioned herself above her, hovering without touching.

“You can't come until I'm ready,” she told Emma. “No matter how badly you need to. You have to control yourself.” She grinned at Emma.

“I need -” Emma said, and then she looked back at the mirror. “Fuck. Don't do this to us.”

“I _am_ her,” the Evil Queen told her. “You want me, too. You're going to fuck me and you are going to like it.” Emma gasped, and the Evil Queen looked at her hand, with Emma's heart in it. “Don’t come,” she said, and then she let herself down so that the head of the dildo was pressing against her.

They both shuddered, and Emma rocked without thinking into the welcoming wet. Her head entered her, tight, stretching, and the Evil Queen said, “Oh, yes.” The tone was unlike any that Regina had ever used in bed. Emma focused on the command. _Don't come._ It shouldn't be this hard.

The Evil Queen watched her face. “I need to -” Emma tried to pull out, and the Evil Queen followed her, pushing down, taking more of her. Emma rocked again, and then she was fully inside, Regina's body rippling around her, wetness and want and tight, and Emma just rolled her hips and spasmed, hard, the orgasm ripping through her.

The heart disappeared from the Evil Queen's hand, and Emma was still shaking, her body flooded with relief, and then they were fucking, hard, Emma's hips slapping, tight and deep inside her, harsh and fast. “You're already filling me,” the Evil Queen said, touching her own belly. “Your touch was all I needed to take everything, to make you mine forever. I can always feel you, and what you left in me.” Emma was going to come again, and the Evil Queen could feel it, because she said, “When you come inside me, you mark me and claim me. You know I need your cum inside me. I want you to fill my body.” Emma clenched around the toy. Somehow her clit was consumed by the magic, the sensation along the toy's length replacing any native feeling Emma might have had.

The Evil Queen came down hard on the toy and then made circles with her hips, her own clit against Emma's body, and they locked together like that. The Evil Queen's eyes rolled back and she said, “Like that, yes, Emma, come,” and Emma came explosively again, imagining her want filling Regina.

She gasped, and then she came down enough to realize. “That wasn't my heart.”

“Of course it wasn't,” the Evil Queen said. She was flushed with victory. “That would be no fun.”

“Fuck,” Emma cursed. She tried to pull out, and the Evil Queen followed the motion.

And then there was another voice, beyond the doorway of this room. “Moms?” It was Henry.

With a wave, the Evil Queen sent ropes around Emma's legs and arms, binding her to each of the four postings, and a tight gag on her mouth. After that she pulled off Emma, leaving her with the toy inside, soaked and upright. “You'll keep,” she told Emma, and in a moment she was in her dress and out the door.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blah blah this fic is just barely managing to keep up with my viewing episode, which means I have no idea what's going to happen after this chapter! Woooo let's see how this works out...

 The first thing Emma saw when the purple smoke cleared was a coffin. Yet another coffin. Her father’s.

 _Stand by me, and do nothing else,_ the Evil Queen had told her. So she had to stand, although her knees weakened at the sight of the town, assembled to honor their prince. Regina stood with Henry, beside Snow.

Henry had freed Regina somehow from her prison of mirrors. But they had run from the vault. Regina had not fought for Emma, and Emma couldn't tell if she blamed Regina for that. She had, in some part of her, chosen not to fight the queen, and Regina knew it.

The Evil Queen wore a truly breathtaking scaled armor suit. She'd selected a short wall to land on, and they were easily and immediately visible to the assemblage. The sun was shining, but darkness seemed to gather over the crowd as they took in the sight. Emma in her red jacket, but clearly enslaved. And the Evil Queen lording over them all.

The queen snapped her fingers with a flourish, and Hyde appeared, hanging by his heels from one of the nearby trees. An impressive magical feat, just to transport him in that way, although the message was clearly more targeted than that. “I gave your _mayor_ an entire week to retake her little office. But she's incapacitated by - by what? Weakness. You've asked me to save you from this _menace._ Wait no longer!”

Emma would have laughed at the theatrics if it wasn't so horrible. The Evil Queen had tried to capture Hyde just as much as Regina had. Hyde’s allies continuously freed him. Probably he would only be the queen's prisoner for another few hours. But he was just a pawn - dangerous, deadly, even, but insignificant compared to the struggle that raged between Regina and her dark half.

“You have asked that these invaders be sent to the Underworld, where they belong. Your _mayor_ would force you to run to the Enchanted Forest. Watch!" She again snapped her fingers, and a large metal cage appeared. Inside was a filthy mass of bodies, emaciated, nearly every one unconscious on the ground. A few groans emanated from the mass.

The queen paused, looking at the group.

And Regina stepped forward. “They are innocent! We have offered them shelter and a place here, and you turned our charity into a trap. Let them go.”

“Or what? You'll cry?” The Evil Queen cackled. She stepped off the wall, beckoning Emma. Emma followed her.

She looked at Regina, but Regina did not look at her at all. Instead, she pulled Excalibur from its sheath on her back.

“As if!” the Evil Queen said. She batted away the blade, stepping close enough to kiss. “You wouldn't dare. _I,_ however, have no such hesitation.” She reached into Regina's chest and pulled out her heart.

And then she paced away, as Regina let Excalibur's tip down to rest on the ground. Emma’s heart bruised and bled. She took two impossible steps toward the Evil Queen, but could go no farther. _Fuck, no,_ she thought. Her hands shook. _Figure it out, Regina. Meld back with her. Please beat her._

But Regina just stood there. Her eyes met Emma's and held.

And the Evil Queen crushed her heart, and Regina turned to dust. Dust? And blew away. Excalibur fell into the grass.

“You don't need a mayor, Storybrooke. You need a queen. And now you have one.” The queen shot a glance at the cage of people, and said, “Emma, get Excalibur.”

Emma bent and picked it up with hands shaking. She turned to the queen, and they both disappeared.

In the vault, the queen sat down, her eyes focused on the space between. The faraway look was a familiar one. She was so close to Regina. But so broken. And now Regina was gone.

Emma set down Excalibur and went to her knees, seeking the queen's gaze.

When she finally looked at her, Emma said, “It feels bad, doesn't it?”

The queen scoffed.

“Come here,” Emma said, and she held her hand. The queen stood, and Emma wrapped her arms around her.

Emma kissed her neck, and up to her lips. Her skin tasted like Regina. It was bittersweet.

The queen smiled a little, putting her arms on Emma's shoulders. “I'm the only one you have left,” she said.

“And there is good in you,” Emma said. She spoke through tears. “But this wasn't the way. She wanted to reintegrate with you. She accepted you. But now, nobody else will. Henry chose her. Remember?”

 _“You_ accept me,” the queen said in confusion.

“I don't. I will never accept this.” Emma kissed her lips again, and the queen opened her mouth to Emma's tongue. Regina. All that was left of her. Maybe she could salvage this. “This is what you want, isn't it? You want me, and you want Henry. You want to rule over the town, and have family. _That's what Regina had._ That's what you've just taken from yourself. Permanently.”

“Regina was afraid. She wasn't ready for this baby. She thought you were right, that the baby is an abomination. But I know what she is. She's…” Emma waited for the world, but the queen did not find it. “She will have a magic beyond even yours, Emma Swan. And she will need me to help her. Not Regina. Regina was ready to rend her apart and kill her, because that's what you wanted.”

Emma pulled away. She hadn't known that. Regina had taken full responsibility for her decision, for splitting herself using the serum. But if she'd asked Emma, would Emma have opposed the choice? She didn't know. “I was just afraid for her,” she said.

“She thought that you were right to be afraid. I know better.”

Emma felt nausea building in her throat. “God, I am so sorry.”

“This is of no consequence,” the queen said. “She is gone.”

“Yeah.” Emma walked away, to their bed, and the Evil Queen followed her there, plastering her body against Emma's back. She made it impossible to grieve. Emma could feel desperation in her touch, a need that felt familiar - the need that Regina had displayed in Camelot, magnified a thousandfold.

Emma turned and kissed her stomach, something she had been afraid to do since the ultrasound. She couldn't remember the incantation, but the queen was patient. When she got the pronunciation right, her daughter's presence washed over her in a wave, nearly overwhelming Emma's sense of her own self. But through the spell she could feel, under her hands, a slight fluttering in Regina's stomach. The baby could feel Emma, too, and was moving in response.

Then Emma moved up in the bed, and satisfied the rest of the queen’s need with her fingers.

* * *

Hyde had said that Emma was not the only Savior he had met. Taunting, but he also offered something. _Follow the red bird._

She and the Evil Queen followed the bird to its final place, and there the vision overtook Emma again. There was also a girl. The Oracle. She said that the vision was inescapable. A vision of the future. The shaking in Emma's hands foretold the end. The queen killed the Oracle in frustration, but she couldn't destroy the vision.

A few days later, the queen was holding court as usual, on a throne set below the clocktower. They had found the throne brutally vandalized, and the queen repaired it and persisted in her charade of medieval justice.

Last week there were few supplicants. But this week - having killed Regina, and with Hyde still miraculously imprisoned - there was a substantial collection of people.

One of them was Jasmine of Agrabah. Like the rest, she had been convinced by the queen's defeat of Regina, and came to her for help. But unlike the rest, she provided information in exchange for the queen’s help.

_Aladdin._

The queen knew exactly the spell to find him, and it was no trouble for her to dig him out from the crypt he hid within. When she did, he offered a story. The story of a Savior that defied his own fate, using the Shears of Destiny. But he had lost them in the Land of Untold Stories.

The queen ordered every one of the invaders to turn themselves and all their belongings over to her. Her reign turned into one of terror, a new low, if possible. It had a sense of inevitability. What Emma had not expected was the queen’s motivation - it was for Emma, to save her from the fate that dogged her.

Those invaders that did not turn themselves over to her, she hunted down and publicly flayed. But she could not find the Shears.

Emma could not dissuade her. She told the queen she would meet her fate, but the queen would not hear it. The queen continued to approach Henry, but Henry insisted that the queen return Emma's heart to her chest, and the queen refused to do that, too. “The more you tighten your grip, the more we will slip through your fingers,” Henry told her. She laughed at the quote, and told him that this was for Emma. He believed her, but did not budge.

And by some twist of fate, she could not take his heart. Snow and Belle were also protected. A piece of hope flared in Emma's chest when she saw Henry's heart repel the queen. That had been Regina's spell.

The queen had set a guardian that told her when someone entered Gold’s shop of treasures. They caught Aladdin and Jasmine there. Aladdin was cheerfully defiant, Jasmine properly subservient. They would not tell the queen what they were doing there. With a look at Emma, the queen let them go. “Let their story play out,” she said, and Emma nodded. _Leave them alone, my love,_ she thought to herself. Every person that the queen let live was a small victory.

And Emma herself? She told herself she waited for a chance to steal her heart back from the queen. She remembered her father's death and the hate consumed her. It only made the sex better.

This was Regina, too. This was, maybe, the Regina she had fallen in love with in Camelot. The one who had used and controlled her. Emma was ensorcelled, in all senses of the word. _I will never accept this,_ she'd told her. Yet day by day she refused to take back control. The queen removed her bracelet, and she did not escape. She watched the queen disembowel and skin her way through the invaders from the Land of Untold Stories, and felt the cool cut of the blade that would end her life. The queen was not in the vision, either. But Emma knew it was not the queen under the hood.

It was night. She waded through thick fog. Excalibur was strapped to her back. The queen was still in the vault. She'd sent Emma to investigate a disturbance at Gold’s shop.

Emma was a block away when she saw the figure. It had its hood up. Who the fuck was it? Why couldn't Emma see? They raised a sword, menacing. It was the sword from the vision, with one red jewel.

This was it. This was how Emma would die.

Emma drew Excalibur. Arthur's restored sword should cut without difficulty through her opponent's. But it wouldn't. She wondered if she should send a message to the queen, a red flare, for aid. But it wouldn't matter. Emma would die either way. The queen had not found the Shears fast enough.

 _Who cares?_ Emma thought fiercely to herself. It didn't matter. She'd die now. It was all the same. Regina was dead. She'd meet her in the Underworld. She'd live through Hades's nightmare. It couldn't be worse than this hellish in-between.

Her opponent made the first move, a wide and sloppy slash that Emma parried easily, and then a much tighter jab, and they were at it. Swords clanged. What was left of her family came around a corner. Henry would see her die. But the queen wasn't here. So there was that.

“Regina!”

Emma turned slightly. She'd been wrong - the queen _was_ here, across the street, holding a lamp. Where had she come from? Was that lamp the reason she'd sent Emma on this errand to Gold’s?

_Regina?_

Emma took three fast steps backward, and her opponent followed tightly. “Regina?” She moved like Regina. “Don't kill me.”

The hooded figure grunted in a distinctly Regina-like tone.

“How are you alive?” Emma parried another wide slash, and then Regina was through her defenses. The first stab, as it always did, went through her right thigh.

A cloud of purple smoke interspersed itself between them, and Emma stumbled to her knee, crying out raggedly, as the queen fully manifested.

Regina retreated a few steps, putting down her hood. That was different. Maybe Emma wouldn't die, after all. Emma said, “She has my heart. I had no choice. I swear.”

“No choice? Not to fight her when she killed your father, or when she tried to blacken Henry's heart - or when she took you, Emma? Or when she _killed me.”_ Regina was spitting fire.

But her eyes were on the queen, not Emma. Emma bit her tongue against her response, and another wave of pain made her gasp.

Regina looked at her then, and the queen turned. Spitting images of gorgeousness, both with their full attention on her, Emma Swan, the worthless scum of the earth, bleeding to death, like Hyde just another pawn in their game.

“I will do it,” the queen muttered. She looked at Regina, and said, “Fine! I will do it, Regina. Although we both know you could never kill her.”

“Would that really be her fate, if I did not intend it?” Regina raised an eyebrow at the queen.

“You're right,” the queen said. As if this was a continued conversation from another time. But Emma knew it wasn't. They simply both knew the other’s mind. They hadn't needed to argue, or explain their sides. “This is ridiculous!” The queen paced away, shaking her head, exasperated. She turned sharply to look at Regina. “Do you really think you have what it takes? You know you don't. You ran from your own daughter. That's why I have her. Now you think you can do this, but what will happen the next time disaster strikes?”

“At least it will be a disaster I did not cause,” Regina said softly. And she took a few steps, close enough to touch the queen.

“Just one more thing.” The queen rubbed the genie’s lantern, and smoke billowed from it. “All Saviors die, and I don't trust you to do this. Idiotic moral Mayor Mills.” She shook her head, addressing Aladdin. Aladdin?

Emma was blacking out. Regina had stabbed her. Just to make a point to _herself._

“I wish that Emma Swan was never the Savior.”

And it all disappeared.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to catch up this week, but I think it will just have to be next week!
> 
> I also just want to say thanks for all the kudos and comments and such. It's been interesting taking these characters for a whirl, and I hope that I haven't desecrated them or anything awful like that.

Emma slipped in and out of consciousness. Her father’s arm was tight around her waist, and she tried to stay upright, although with their horse galloping it was difficult. The flight was silent. _Bandits,_ Emma remembered. She'd been stabbed in a sting against bandits. That Robin Hood and his outlaw band. The Merry Men. The pieces fell together in a slow-motion blur.

There was a shout from the front of the line, and the men circled. Another bandit? “The Evil Queen!” the men shouted.

She didn't look like the Evil Queen. She looked like a gentleman out for an afternoon ride in a double-breasted wool coat with red trimming. It was loose enough to hide her pregnancy. Pregnancy? Emma shook her head. The Evil Queen had been dead since Emma was a baby. What was she thinking?

With a wave, the Evil Queen froze the men that had circled around her. “Emma,” she called.

 _Regina,_ Emma mouthed. And David turned their horse away, toward the castle, yelling, “Protect the princess with your lives!”

They left the men behind, and Emma passed fully out.

She woke to the sound of her parents conferring in low voices. “Emma, you're awake!” Snow said, turning David around.

“Dad,” Emma said, smiling through the biting pain of her wound. She reached out, and he squeezed her hand. He looked at least fifty. But he was warm, smiling, _alive._ Why did she think he would be anything else?

“The Evil Queen has returned,” he said solemnly.

“She's after you, Dad,” Emma said. “I had… I think, a nightmare. That she killed you. In a land… far from here.”

“It was just a dream,” Snow said. “We have spells that block her from coming inside the castle. We defeated her once, and we can do it again.”

“Yeah,” Emma said in confusion. Henry opened the door in golden armor, followed by a phantom.

“Neal!” She sat upright, dizzily.

“Princess. You're awake.” He smiled. She remembered their wedding. “We had planned to put off Henry's knighting, but guests have travelled here from throughout the land, and now that you've woken -”

“Don't think of it,” David said. “She is wounded! She must rest.”

“And that witch?” Neal inquired.

David bowed his head. “Zelena has been unable to heal her wound.”

Emma spoke up. “Please, let's have the knighting. Henry has been waiting for so long. I can sit up long enough for it. Really, I am fine.”

Henry and Neal spent the night by Emma's side. Somehow it felt like she was reacquainting herself with Neal after a long time apart, although she'd just seen him that day, before they left to hunt down the bandits. The pain of her wound only worsened as the day became night, although she did not tell either of them. What could they do, when Zelena had failed to heal her?

It was midnight when they both drifted asleep, leaving Emma alert. The room was eerily quiet. Did Emma dream it, or was the window opening? Why would it need to, when Regina could appear in a puff of smoke anywhere?

The window opened fully, and Regina stepped through it, immediately straightening her jacket. “Emma. Get up, we are leaving.” She waved at Henry and Neal, and they were blanketed in a shimmering veil. The same veil she had used to freeze the knights, during the day.

“Your Majesty? My queen?” Emma fought through the feverish blur.

“ _She_ sent you here, through her wish. Remember?” Regina seemed to wait for her. “Please get up. We need to talk, and I'd rather it not be here.”

“My,” Emma paused. “My leg. The Evil Queen is dead.”

“No,” Regina said slowly. “What has happened to your leg?”

Emma pushed away the covers to show her bandages, blood-soaked. Her hands trembled.

“Oh,” Regina said softly. She approached the bed, waved her hand over the wound.

Nothing happened. She started unbinding the bandages, and Emma hissed.

“The sword,” Regina said. “Your wound won't heal.” Her brow crinkled.

“Why are you here, my queen?” Emma asked, and Regina looked up, her eyes glancing over Neal and Henry.

Then she sat on the edge of the bed. “She sent you here with her wish, Emma. I'm here to - to remind you that this isn't the only world, the only possible future. If you want to take the old one back.”

Emma looked at her face, so familiar in profile. But she had never seen the Evil Queen before. “Please tell me what you mean. What future?”

“You are… destined for something. You're fated to… to die, Emma Swan. Do you remember the shaking of your hands? It foretells the end.”

Emma frowned and shook her head, trying to clear it. “Regina, I - I can't remember. It's a dream, far away.” Her eyes drifted to Regina’s lips.

“She sent you here to protect you from it.” Regina turned her face and looked her straight in the eye. “She didn't listen to you, when you said you were ready to meet your fate. But I - I will ask you, Emma Swan. What do you want? If you do not want to come back, I will leave you here.”

Panic gripped Emma's heart. She reached out and grabbed Regina's hand. “Don't leave,” she said. Regina was the only thing that seemed to have color.

Regina smiled slightly. “You remember?”

“I - no.” It was something terribly important. Something Emma couldn't miss. But she didn't know what it was.

“I am going to kiss you, to try to restore your memories,” Regina said, rolling her eyes but speaking in seriousness. “Would that be alright?”

Emma nodded without speaking, and Regina bent to kiss her.

It came back in a rush, and Emma grasped at Regina's jacket, accidentally disappearing it, searching. “You have her back. Regina, you joined together again.” Emma  choked on her tears. “I thought you were dead.” Her hands were tangled in Regina's shirt, keeping her close, and she tried to draw her closer yet, close enough to hold.

Regina climbed into the bed, and Emma kissed her with a hungry desperation that had nothing to do with sex. “God, I - it seemed so bad, Regina. I didn't know what to do.” She remembered fucking the Evil Queen with Regina watching, and shuddered. Why hadn't Regina fought for her? Was she angry? Emma had been the Evil Queen's willing prisoner for three weeks. “I'm really, really sorry.”

“Don't be,” Regina said. “You - were you OK?” She searched Emma's face. “I didn't hurt you, did I?” The queen.

“No,” Emma whispered. “I was OK.”

“Thank you for taking care of her.” Regina looked at Emma with the softest eyes, and Emma kissed her hard, craving her softness, wondering what Regina meant. Who was “her?”

Regina's body shuddered, and Emma tried to turn into her. Her mangled thigh protested, and Emma pulled away from the kiss to find Regina panting, eyes dark. Regina slid in the bed on top of Emma, and Emma spread her legs to give room that was not touching her thigh. Regina might have misunderstood because she pushed up Emma's nightdress and in a second she was in her underwear, fingers moving with skill and driving need, and Emma felt her body try to catch up with what was happening.

She was so beautiful in the moonlight, mouth open, hair tousled. Emma reached down and slipped her own fingers under Regina's pants, past her swelling stomach, and Regina slid up, her hips pulsing, so that Emma could reach her. Regina was as wet as the Evil Queen always had been, thick and so responsive. Emma slipped two fingers inside her to start, and Regina pulled out of Emma’s underwear and bucked hard into the touch, so ready. Emma couldn't imagine doing enough to satisfy this, what Regina needed, but she worked her clit and pumped into her, and Regina shuddered and arched and came into her hand, “Oh, Emma,” the only words she said, and she was quiet again, relaxing into Emma's body, trembling.

Her body felt like the Evil Queen's, and it took Emma a moment to realize why. Her stomach fit against Emma's. The baby was present in the space between them. Emma had felt her first movements in the Evil Queen, and Emma wondered if Regina had felt their daughter move yet. Maybe she'd felt it before, and hadn't told Emma. 

Emma kissed her hair and held her close. It had happened so quickly. “I -” _love you,_ Emma thought. The words caught in her throat. “Taking care of who?”

“Mmm,” Regina moaned. She kissed Emma's chest where the shirt ended and her skin began. “My dark half. Thanks for being hers. You were her - her redemption, Emma Swan.”

Emma heard a million meanings behind those simple words. She didn't mean just now. She meant then, too, Regina's first redemption, and each one that followed it.

“Would you ever have told me?” Regina had never gotten so close to confessing her feelings. She didn't need to. But Emma wanted to know, suddenly. How long would it have taken for Regina to make an effort, to take that first brave step. If she ever would have.

Regina kept her head against Emma's chest, but she tensed. Finally she said, “I don't know.” Emma waited for more, but Regina said, “I may have staged this final battle, but Emma, what the Oracle said is true. Aladdin only lived because he used the Shears. If my - her - wish could only send you here, and replace your memories… I can feel your magic, still. You are still the Savior. If a wish can't do it -”

“Regina,” Emma interrupted. “I am not afraid. If I was afraid I would have stayed in New York. I don't see what scares you both so much. _Everyone_ dies. We go into each new confrontation with death hanging over our shoulders, every time. All we can do is delay it. Did you really think that we would grow old together?” Emma waited, and Regina finally propped herself up to look at Emma. Emma put her hand on Regina's cheek. “When I die, I know that it will not be in a bed.” She let her hand fall.

“But the trembling, Emma. It is coming.” Regina seemed to be ready to say something else, but she didn't.

“I will be there for the birth of our daughter,” Emma whispered. “I promise that I will. But I will not try to flee from what is coming, Regina.”

“I will protect you,” Regina said.

“What? Regina, if anything this should have shown you that you shouldn't. You killed David! He is dead.” They both looked over at Neal and Henry, frozen in sleep by the bedside. Emma remembered her father, on the horse that morning.

Then she shook her head. “Even if there is something we can do to reverse it, the fact remains. The queen is stronger because she has nothing at all to lose. But Regina, you do. Remember how alone she was? You can't let her take over again. And if you put yourself in the middle of whatever is coming, instead of me, we don't know what will happen. Our daughter needs _you.”_ Not the Evil Queen. “I loved the queen, but I can't imagine living that way. Watching you kill innocent people is not my idea of domestic bliss, Regina.”

Regina nodded, grimacing.

“And Henry needs us,” Emma added.

“All right,” Regina agreed. “So you want to go back to Storybrooke.”

“Yes,” Emma said. And then she looked at Neal, and thought about David. “Robin is here,” she said.

Regina sighed. “They are just caricatures, Emma. Not real.”

“Do you think I could have gone along with this fantasy if they weren't?”

“It was built to contain you, Emma. They might know how to pretend to be people…” Regina drifted off.

“It couldn't hurt to try? Henry has missed Neal so much.”

Regina studied Emma's hairline. “It couldn't hurt to try,” she agreed. “Where is Robin?”

Emma took a deep breath and told her.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FLUFF Kitchen scene AHEAD!! In honor of PlayfulMay's excellent doppleganger fic and my amazing, gorgeous, and extremely particular partner.

The Snow Whites stared at each other. The younger broke the stare first. Looking at the wish realm’s David. And then looking back at her own doppelganger.

The older one spoke. “I am so sorry for your loss,” she said. “I am sorry for everything the Queen put you through.” She hugged the younger Snow.

Emma raised her eyebrows at Regina and Regina helped her to hobble down the stairs, to the street where they poofed away. The two days they'd spent in the wish realm had not produced any progress in magically treating the deep stab wound on Emma’s thigh. Apparently Bewolf’s sword left injuries that could only heal given time. And Bewolf's sword was the only sword that could withstand Excalibur, and therefore the sword Regina needed to retrieve in order to carry out her plan.

The two days had, however, been sufficient to convince Emma of exactly how adamantly apologetic Regina could be. Despite that, Regina rigidly maintained that it was rude to disappear and appear in people's houses.

David was the last of the “caricatures” that they delivered for a visit. Emma had obviously wanted to watch the entire conversation. Would her mother from the wish realm allow the other to share her David? Was that something that Mary Margaret would even want? With the Sorcerer's wand it was not difficult to imagine David spending one week here, and one week in the Enchanted Forest of the wish realm. Of course it wasn't really Emma's business. Although she wanted her father here, something gave her the feeling that this man would not fully replace David Nolan.

Would she share Regina with another copy of herself, given the need? Emma bit back a giggle at the thought - until she realized that was what Regina had effectively just done with Emma.

Thank God that was all over. It felt like the blink of an eye had passed, and also a lifetime. The uninhibited intimacy of her three weeks with the queen - the sex, but also the rawness of the queen’s emotions, the shamelessness with which she expressed her own desires - left its mark on them. Having known the queen, even for such a short time, Emma knew Regina better, too. And even the queen had not expressed herself as fully as Regina had in the wish realm - even if Regina had needed to use the queen, an entity that had been separate from her own identity, for that brief span of time - had needed to use the queen’s emotions as a proxy for her own - Emma could see Regina's vulnerability more clearly when embodied as the queen, and Regina knew that she had seen it. With that huge barrier broken, a barrier that Emma had not even seen until it was gone, Emma found herself entwining with Regina, closer and tighter than she had ever known was possible.

What Regina had said to her in the wish realm was almost like, “I love you,” in the way love sometimes shattered all boundaries, except it was so much more than that. Emma had always known in some part of herself that Regina had put herself through a wringer on more than one occasion on Emma's behalf. She had known that it was for love; whether watered-down or full-bodied had been something she had avoided wondering. If Regina loved her like Emma now knew she did, it brought into question the very fundamentals of Regina's identity. Not gay or straight, although maybe there was that, too, but strong and independent or absolutely, wretchedly lovesick. Obviously there was a third option, which was all of the above, in a person who continued to express surprise at the most basic of human kindnesses, let alone the possibility that someone might love her who knew her as thoroughly as Emma knew Regina. No wonder Regina had not said anything before the dagger was given to her.

The queen had left great waves in her passing. Having transported their dead for a short (or long) vacation in this realm, Regina immediately pivoted to addressing each of her evil half’s wicked deeds. The largest of the challenges by far was to convince the town that despite appearances, she had not died, and that instead the Evil Queen had been “vanquished.” The queen’s flair for the dramatic complicated an already difficult task, and Regina's private nighttime venue for her own victory did not help matters. Maybe it was because she didn't want Storybrooke to know about the baby, at least not in that way, with that context, and she knew that the queen would bring her up during the confrontation. Or maybe it was because Regina had rejected the theatrics of her former role, and simply had not realized how that might backfire.

Emma faced the possibility of Robin’s reentry into Regina's life with as much grace as she could muster. The effort was wasted, though, because Regina barely paid him any attention at all, after delivering him at Zelena's doorstep.

Emma had not spoken with her mother privately after David's death, and telling her about her relationship with Regina, until the day after she arrived back in Storybrooke. The David she'd brought for her mother had stayed, in a twist, at Zelena's, too. Granny's was overfull with refugees from the Land of Untold Stories, and Zelena seemed not to mind the company.

Snow’s response was as drastic as Emma had feared, but in a different direction than Emma had expected. Minutes after arriving at Snow's apartment that morning, she found herself holding Baby Neal and facing down a massive binder open to a magazine cutout of a blond woman in a wedding dress.

“Mom, I do not think that this is anywhere in the immediate future,” Emma said slowly.

“Don't be silly. You've been dating for nearly a half year! Your father and I married sooner than that.”

“Five months. And that's because you were in the Enchanted Forest.” Emma scrambled. “Anyway, I'm still married to Zombie Neal.” Her relationship with the Neal from the wish realm was best summarized by the symbolic divorce papers she'd spent the morning begging, cajoling, and finally bribing the town judge to issue, and which now awaited his signature. Judging from Neal’s response, it was unlikely that he would be signing any time soon. She'd banished him to Zelena's house, too.

“Not _here,_ and we're here. Emma,” Snow said, turning in seriousness to her. “Regina is from the Enchanted Forest, just as much as I am. She's showing! Gay marriage is legal and I will not back down.”

Emma gulped and Baby Neal began fussing, inevitably. Regina wasn't showing. She was just wearing slightly different styles of shirts right now.  “Mom, I know this is a big deal to you, and it is, but I am not going to have a shotgun wedding. That's not the way to do it. Don't you think Regina wants a wedding that doesn't feel forced?”

“It's not _forced._ Emma, we all need this. A distraction from how bad everything got.” A hopeful smile replaced Snow’s seriousness.

Emma switched tack. “Mom, I'm so happy that you've accepted us.”

“I was able to talk with Regina quite a bit while you were with the queen,” Snow said.

“Oh. What did she say?” Did Regina let Snow in on her reasons for leaving Emma with the queen? It would have been crazy to - but also crazy not to.

Snow nodded slowly, looking away. “She said,” and here she tipped her head in a very bird-like expression, and looked back at Emma. “She said she wanted to rejoin with the queen, but that until the queen was willing, she wasn't able to. But that the queen would love you so much that she would do anything to protect you, and that we could use that to our advantage.” Snow sighed. “She said having you would keep the queen from the edge. After she disappeared and the queen began her witch hunt, I did wonder whether the opposite had occurred. I don't know. The way she looks at you, Emma.” Snow shook her head. “I don't know how I didn't see it before. She loves you.”

Snow seemed to be waiting for Emma, and Emma shifted, looking at the baby in her arms. “I love her, too,” she managed. “And Zombie David? Is he - did you guys decide anything?”

Snow shook her head. “I - they are talking about their options.”

“What do you want?” Emma dragged her eyes up and looked at Snow.

“I want whatever he wants,” Snow said with a sniff. Her eyes had filled with tears. “I don't know. It would be - but I don't want to destroy their happiness. I think it is selfish of me.”

“You don't think he's a little… kingly? You know?” Stiff and sober.

Snow shrugged. “I barely was able to speak with him. In the next week I hope to at least talk to him without her there.”

“I'm sure you'll be able to.” Emma sushed Baby Neal, who thrashed in her arms.

“I think he wants down,” Snow told Emma, and Emma set the baby down on his feet. He toddled away instantly. He was a baby no longer. Things moved so quickly. Should she bring a wedding up to Regina? There was nothing less welcome. Emma sighed and looked at Snow’s wedding book through laced fingers, utterly lost.

* * *

“I told you to _slice_ the carrots.”

Emma looked up from the cutting board to find Regina scowling at her. She turned fully from the stove, facing Emma down.

“They are sliced! See.” Emma offered the bowl to Regina.

“That is called diced, Emma. When the pieces are that small.”

“Got it.” Emma raised her eyebrows expectantly, still offering the bowl. “Noted. Will do better next time.”

“We can't use those. Slice some more.”

“Huh,” Emma said, looking at the empty bag where there once were carrots. “Or maybe we could use these.”

“Go to the store,” Regina said, and turned off the stove.

Emma put down the bowl and sighed to release the irritation in her chest. The situation did not feel foreign to her. And then she smiled, despite herself, and advanced on Regina. It was less intimidating with her hopping hobble, from the unhealed injury on her leg.

“My meticulously chopped carrots aren't good enough for you?” she asked Regina, pressing her against the counter.

Regina was still simmering, but she didn't push Emma away. “You're not going to distract me,” she returned, in a normal tone that matched Emma's. “Go get more carrots. I'll work on the rest of dinner.”

“Yes… my queen,” Emma said, weighing the words, watching Regina's face carefully.

Regina's eyes sparkled, and Emma put her arm around Regina's backside and hoisted her up on the counter, saying, “I'll go get some carrots from Theo’s right… now.” She kept her voice level, but slipped a hand slowly up Regina's skirt, and Regina reacted instantly, arching and opening her legs, which had the dual effect of allowing Emma to press her hips between her legs and inhibiting her hand’s journey up Regina's thigh. Emma rotated her hand so that it was under Regina's thigh and kept going, nearly blind with the thrill of it, hurtling forward unthinkingly.

“You'd better, because if everything gets cold you are going to pay,” Regina told her. Emma barely heard it. Regina lifted her leg, and Emma reached her core with the tips of her fingers. Her panties were soaked through, and Emma could already feel how Regina would ride her, right here, hot for a quick fuck, unable and unwilling to pull away. Even for those damn carrots. Emma found her nipple through the sweater and pulled it, her mouth open and nearly gasping against Regina's chest, sliding down to -

“When is din - things that can never be unseen.” Henry had rounded the corner and as quickly retreated behind it.

Emma pulled her hand out of Regina's skirt and backed three feet away. Regina crossed her legs, still perched on the counter.

“Uh.” Emma cleared her throat. “I think in like forty minutes. No baseball today?”

“It is Tuesday,” Henry said. He was already in the drawing room. “Please wash every single thing in that room.”

“Nothing happened!” Emma said, looking helplessly at Regina. She whispered, “Feel free to jump in.”

Regina slid off the counter, and whispered back, “ _You_ did this. You deal with it.” Louder, she said, “Thanks for cutting the carrots, Emma. I suppose we'll make do with these.”

“Yep,” Emma said, returning to her station. “So, onion next? Sliced, diced, or impaled?”

“You're not impaling our son,” Regina murmured.

“He's not the one I had in mind,” Emma returned.

“I am still right here,” Henry said from the other room, making them both jump.

“Ears like a friggin bat,” Emma said, fighting the urge to bury her face in her hands, or go back to her apartment. This was definitely not a level of intimacy she had bargained for. She'd never cooked dinner with a date - take-out or go out, that was the deal. Really it had never occurred to her, and she'd never dated a man who enjoyed cooking.

Regina did. It had just started happening, even before the Evil Queen debacle. Now Emma was Regina's kitchen slave as well as her toy in bed. Emma blinked through onion-induced tears and kept her feet firmly planted. _No more running. Here to stay._ It was a mantra. She remembered her conversation with Snow that morning. How could she ask Regina's opinion on marriage, when she couldn't even handle making dinner?

She got the door when the doorbell rang, with her crutch under her arm.

“Hook.”

“Emma, luv.” His face was dark. “I was worried I'd find you here.” Regina and Henry came up behind Emma. “We need to talk.” Hook’s eyes flicked behind Emma. “Privately. Tiger Lily sent me.”

“Killian, we don't want you here,” Emma said, trying for “stern” and getting a wavery nervous tone.

“Your Final Battle is coming, Emma,” Hook said. “I brought you this.” He gave her a piece of what looked like driftwood. “Blue should have the rest. But -” he looked up, grimacing. “Look, will you just come outside for a second?”

Emma looked behind her, and Regina nodded slightly. She closed the door, and walked with Killian through the yard and down the sidewalk.

“Look,” Killian started. “I know what she did to you. She used the Dark One's dagger on you.” Emma opened her mouth to protest, and Killian raised a hand to bat away the words, turning to her and putting his hands on her shoulders. “This is what happens with victims, Emma, I've seen it a million times before. When you have no power, you start imagining things that aren't real, that your captor cares for you. You're desperate for a sense of togetherness, even when they're just using you.”

“The Dark One is gone,” Emma said through frozen lips. She tried to shrug off his hands, but he kept holding her. “Killian, let go of me.”

“I know, you rejoined Excalibur. News travels fast. Congratulations, but Emma, you can't accept a life with Regina after what she did to you.”

“She didn't mean to,” Emma said. “I wanted it. Why do you think I brought us to you, so you could see? That was my idea.”

Killian finally released her. “Do you really think you know what you want? You need space from her, and I guarantee that she hasn't given you that space.”

“Of course she has,” Emma said, grasping that small straw. “This conversation is over. Thanks for the - whatever,” she said, looking at the piece of wood.

“It's a wand. I'm here to help, Emma. The Black Fairy is coming for you.”

“The Black Fairy?” Emma blinked rapidly. “Why me?”

“I have no idea,” Killian said. “She takes babies from their parents and uses them to mine fairy dust. That's what I've got.”

Emma's daughter. The pieces fell into place. That's what the Black Fairy would be coming for.

“We have seventeen weeks,” Emma said.

Killian frowned mightily. “What? No, Emma, you don't. You might have _days._ I came as fast as I could. I was trying to come here anyway, actually, but you wouldn't believe…” he drifted off. “You've got a family that loves you, and you've got me, and, uhh, Henry. When you're ready to escape Regina, we will be here for you.”

“You're so confused,” Emma told him. “I've got to go.” Maybe Regina had heard of the Black Fairy. “Thanks for trying to help, Killian.”

He studied her, and then he nodded and walked away.

* * *

Zelena, it developed, was due that week. There was a small question of Zombie Robin's level of interest in his daughter, which was resolved explosively within the first two hours of Zelena going into labor.

News that Zelena was in labor sent Emma into a full-blown panic attack, which she gracefully concealed by turning off her phone and camping out in the darkest corner of Aesop's - truthfully mostly in the alleyway behind. Her infantile behavior surely was no worse than what she would be doing at the hospital, which would be something along the lines of throwing up and slitting her own wrists. What Black Fairy? The Final Battle paled in comparison to this.

Neal and Henry found her there. But they weren't here about Zelena's baby. They were here about Baby Neal.

He was gone.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://youtu.be/nAyZRszhqa0

Emma spent all night leveraging her considerable skills in finding people, although finding babies wasn't really her area of expertise. That made her failure taste a little less sour, although Emma could barely imagine what success would look like.

Snow had turned into a pile of despair, and Emma left her with Zombie David and Snow at the apartment. A master at running. Emma had hoped that she was the one they could rely upon. But her hands had barely stopped trembling all night. The Final Battle that the Evil Queen had endeavored to protect Emma from - that Emma had stayed by her side, partially because the Queen _would_ protect her - the Final Battle that Hook had come to warn her of, but that Emma had always known was coming - it was with the Black Fairy, a demon that Emma could barely envision, let alone imagine facing. She ran from that, too - ran to another demon, one that she better knew. Anything to stop herself from thinking. Anything to delay the end.

Granny's was packed, even though it was early, not even 8am. When she hobbled through the door, everyone looked at her and turned immediately to their neighbors. Something was up. It wasn't Bewolf's sword, strapped to Emma's back. It couldn't be Baby Neal.

It didn't matter. Emma marched with her crutch through the crowd, searching.

There he was, in the far corner of the bar. He was facing her already, a lazy smile on his face, his legs splayed casually.

She grabbed him at the lapels of his jacket and shook him. “Hook, where is Neal?”

Confusion flashed across his face. “Neal? Dead? What are you talking about?”

“ _Baby_ Neal.”

“Oh. How would I know?”

“You showed up with some story of a Black Fairy who takes children. And now Neal is gone. Where do you have him?” Despite herself her hands trembled where they held his jacket. She couldn't stop it from happening. She couldn't delay the end.

“I don't, Swan. I swear!” He squirmed.

He was telling the truth. She released him, and her eyes swept the oddly silent crowd. Hook spoke behind her. “Seventeen weeks, huh? Of all the things I thought I'd come back to…”

 _Fuck._ Regina would not be pleased. And if Hook knew… Storybrooke knew. That was why they were here. To gossip.

She turned back to him, an opponent she could fight. “You shut your smug mouth, Hook. You have _nothing_ to say.”

“Don't I?” He hopped off the barstool. “From what I can recall, I have an awful lot to say.” Emma heard it as the threat it was. “I hear the Evil Queen has been killing people's friends and family. She's back, isn't she, and she's got you all under her reign. Seems like something a hero should be attending, doesn't it?”

He raised an eyebrow at her and swaggered out of the diner. She rushed after him, catching him outside.

“Hook, you leave Regina alone.”

His eyes surveyed her body, and she felt exposed. “Is it really _yours,_ Swan? How the hell did that happen?”

“How do you know about this?”

“Not hard to find out. I hear that Robin has been telling anyone that will listen.”

“Fuck. We should never have brought him back.” How did he know?

“Not the kind of thing you can really keep quiet, Swan. So that's what's kept you with her. You should learn from the outlaw.”

Before she could think, she said, “Are you kidding? You know how it scares me.”

“Is that why you're not at the hospital right now? Have you seen the babe?”

She should be at the hospital. “My brother is gone, Hook! I don't know what - where -”

“I told you, Blue knows more. Go ask her. She'll tell you about the Black Fairy.”

“All right. I will. But if I see you anywhere around Regina, you are getting locked up.”

“And if you lock me up, I'll tell your mother about the dagger.”

“Please, Hook.” He was turning into a real thorn in her side. An irritation that failed to distract her. “Just stay out of it. Go back to wherever you came from.”

“I can't help it. You turned me into a hero, Swan, and now I've got to save my princess.” Emma rolled her eyes, scoffing. “I hear that a visiting doctor killed the Crocodile in his sleep. If the good doctor were still alive, I'd shake his hand.”

Emma twisted her lip and poofed away on him.

The Evil Queen had kept enough of her victims alive that the hospital was also overbrimming. Regina had been working her way through them, but healing was the most draining of magic and it had only been a few days since her return.

Emma headed to the multipurpose room used as the maternity ward. She had an unwelcome flashback to walking down this corridor with Regina just one month ago. To her relief, she realized that was not afraid of Regina's baby any more. The queen had been so confident. She hadn't had a single hesitation or regret. Emma had felt the movement of their baby then, with the queen, and shared in the rapid changes of Regina's body over those few weeks. The queen's bravery had infected her. It _was_ a normal pregnancy, aside from the obvious. Regina hadn't even had morning sickness. Whatever that potion had done to Regina's body, it hadn't affected her ability to carry a child once it was conceived.

It wasn't fear for Regina's safety that had kept her away from the birth of Regina's niece. It was just her own unpleasant memories of labor. Hook had said the baby was born, now, so it was safe.

The door was partially open, and Emma knocked softly.

“Come in.” It was Regina, voice low. Emma slipped through the door to the heart-stopping sight of Regina cradling a newborn. She _was_ showing, no doubt about it, with the baby in her arms making her shirt tight across her stomach. Her slenderness only accentuated the effect.

Henry was asleep in the chair, which kicked back, and Zelena was also asleep.

“Long night?” Emma whispered. She smiled, wishing she hadn't turned off her phone yesterday. It was still off. She wondered what she'd find when she turned it back on.

“It was,” Regina said. She was definitely not happy to see Emma.

Emma peeked through the blankets at the baby. Pink and wrinkled. “Hello, sweetheart,” she cooed, hoping to charm Regina with her well-honed baby skills. Cigarette smoke was heavy on her breath and it embarrassed her, suddenly. “What's your name?”

“Robin,” Regina told her softly. Emma put her arms around Regina, and their lips met softly. Good thing Regina did not seem to mind the stale smoke.

“Sorry I disappeared on you,” Emma said.

“Easy enough to apologize,” Regina returned, but it didn't have any bite.

“Regina, Baby Neal is gone. Hook says the Black Fairy must have taken him.”

Regina processed this information without expression. “She's baiting you,” Regina said. “She wants you to go after him, so she can deal with you now.” Before their baby was born. “She's trying to split us up.”

“You still believe him?”

“Captain Guyliner is not out to get us, Emma,” Regina said dryly.

“Actually… he kind of is. He figured out about Camelot. And… oh. Another bad piece of news.” Emma paused, trying to figure out the best way to go about telling Regina this particular tidbit. “It appears that Zombie Robin has shared our… secret.”

Regina looked in irritation at her sleeping sister. “That was inevitable,” she said, although her voice was harsher now. “It's time, anyway.” She was showing.

Emma swallowed thickly. “Just wondering if…” She couldn't get the question out.

Regina watched her struggle. Finally she said, “Snow's talked to you, hasn't she?”

Emma backed up, her crutch snapping loudly. “Dunno.” She was unsure that she wanted to go down this path at all, let alone now. Why hadn't she just stayed quiet? She was not making this very romantic. Or appealing.

“Emma, I was a single mother. You don't really think we need to marry. I told you. I don't need you.” She turned away.

Great. Emma had fucked up pretty royally. Back to square one.

“Well, I need you,” she said. Regina glanced over her shoulder and then turned away. “I do. Snow said you're from the Enchanted Forest just like she is, and I think we should at least talk about it. Don't shut me out.”

“Please, Emma. Stop.” Regina was hurt. Her voice was almost ragged.

Emma hobbled to her and wrapped her arms around her and Zelena's newborn. She burrowed her face in Regina's neck. “Jeez, I messed this one up. Come on. Let's not take a month to get over this one.” _I don't have a month._ “If you don't want to do it we don't have to talk about it any more. I guess I've never proposed before and everything is honestly just - I am worried I don't have time to do anything right.” It barely felt like she had enough time just to do this, to hold Regina and try to make this last thing right.

Regina was silent, looking down at the baby in her arms. Emma fumbled in her pocket with one hand, and then brought it around.

The ring was almost simple. A silver band with a green gemstone. Regina did not move.

“Come on, baby,” Emma begged. “Just think about it and get back to me.”

Regina took the ring from Emma and stepped out of her arms. She put the infant down on the changing table, keeping her shoulders turned away.

“Charming’s ring.” Regina was stiff. “I never could get it away from them.”

“Now it's yours. If you want it. Mom said there was nobody who deserved it more.”

“She hasn't taken it off. Since the First Curse she's had it.” She addressed the farthest corner of the room from Emma.

“Yeah,” Emma said. “I know. She said… true love always follows this ring. Or something like that.”

Regina scoffed. “This isn't true love. You know that.”

“True love's got nothing on us,” Emma said daringly. “Whatever this is, I want it more than anything. We can beat this, Regina. We've just got to fight.”

Regina sighed, turning to Emma. Her lip twisted. “Is that all you've got?”

Emma went down on her good knee. It was punctuated by a long snore from Henry, and a pulse of pain from her thigh, which pussed under the bandage. “Regina, you can stab me, you can take my heart, you can do what you will with me, but please just let me love you like you deserve to be loved. Let me show the world what we have, and how lucky I am to have it. If that just means living with you and raising our kids together, or if it means a million-dollar wedding cake and all the rest, or the signing of some papers in the courthouse, whatever it is that gives you _that,_ it's what I want. All right?”

“Get up,” Regina said, and Emma straightened. A weight lifted from her shoulders. Intertwined didn't mean anything. Regina deserved this - what Henry had told her last month, what she'd done so half-assedly since. Emma wouldn't follow Zombie Robin’s example. She wasn't just here for the sex.

“Thank you,” Regina said. She put her hands on Emma's shoulders, and Emma stood stiff and still, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

It didn't. Regina said, “I will think about it,” and the newborn make a sound from hell and Regina turned to the changing table.

Emma followed her there and watched her investigate the source of the baby’s discontent. When she'd determined that it was lack of attention, Emma took the baby from her. “You gonna sleep? I'll take over.”

Regina's eyes flickered. “We should talk to Blue. We have to get Neal back before - before something terrible happens to him.”

Emma nodded. “Power naps for the win,” she said. “Bring Henry with you.”

Regina frowned. “You don't think the Black Fairy will come here, to take Robin?”

“If she does she'll find her fight a lot faster than I think she's looking for. I will come get you when Zelena wakes up.”

When Henry woke up, though, he did not go with Regina. He pled off and then sat with Emma, crouched over Once Upon A Time. The book had manifested three blank pages at its end, the pages to replace Emma's story. He had another paper in hand, and the Author’s pen. The paper was covered in hieroglyphs.

The confidence was almost welcome. Henry's attitude had improved, but they had not yet regained their closeness, and it was nice to sit there with him, working on a problem, just the two of them. She missed him terribly.

When Zelena woke up, they paid a visit to the jail, Henry and Emma. Isaac barely gave them anything that wasn't obvious. Henry was about to write the end of the book, and he couldn't affect its resolution. Isaac fled the town in a minivan.

Henry had concealed the hieroglyphs from Regina, and Emma agreed with the choice. The Evil Queen would take one look at that and who knew what she would do? They'd run again. She'd take Emma away from the Final Battle, come what may to Baby Neal. Or she would go after Neal herself. Nothing good would come of sharing this with Regina. Emma had concealed the shaking of her hands from her, too. Regina just thought it was a baiting - not the end.

They went to check on Snow and retrieved Regina before visiting the convent, finding the Blue Fairy in a coma. Inevitable. The convent was a disaster, sisters running in disarray to and fro. So it was back to Hook, who was aboard a retro futuristic submarine.

Before they could ask about Tiger Lily's involvement, Zombie David had him against a wall, a dagger at his throat. “Captain Hook, the ruffian who killed my father,” David said bitterly.

“What?” Again, Hook had no idea what he was being accused of.

Emma disappeared the dagger from David's hands and put her hand on his shoulder. “Whatever happened in the wish realm, it didn't happen here. Hook didn't do that here.”

David lifted Hook off the ground, and slammed him against the bulkhead. “I have sworn to kill this despicable vermin from the day my father was found. Do not take this from me.”

“People don't just murder anyone they want here, David,” Emma tried again.

“I didn't do anything!” Hook said again. “Unhand me or you will find yourself without one.”

“Your threats fall on ears weary of the sound of wind.” David dropped Hook, who easily regained his footing. He turned to Regina. “The bandit has said that we leave for the Enchanted Forest today. It could not be sooner.”

“Don't leave,” Emma said. “You can't leave now. Baby Neal is missing. Please help us.” Help Snow.

Zombie David looked at her a long moment, blue eyes sparkling in the ship's lighting. “Very well,” he said. “We shall stay.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Emma said. If this had been David, she would have hugged him. But he wasn't, so they just turned back to Hook.

Emma said, “The Blue Fairy is unconscious. What else do you know? Should we go back to Neverland and find Tiger Lily?”

“I - she is hard to find,” Hook said. “She said one other thing. That the Black Fairy was banished by Blue to begin with. Using that wand I gave you. I don't see how that will help you get the baby back, though.”

“If she is banished, perhaps she wishes to return.” Regina was working hard on the problem, her eyes withdrawn, and Hook watched her with open malice. Emma stepped between them, looking pointedly at Henry, and Hook turned away in frustration.

“Either way, we need more information before we walk into this trap,” Regina concluded. She was either ignoring Hook’s look, or she hadn't noticed.

“ _We_ are not going anywhere. You aren't coming, Regina.”

“She's trying to split us up,” Regina pointed out. “So it is paramount that we not allow that to happen.”

“Regina,” Emma pled. This was too public. The Evil Queen was not the scariest possibility. What if Regina fought, and was flung against a wall? They could lose the baby. Emma would have to kill Regina with Excalibur. She could not imagine a worse outcome.

“I always thought you were a shitty mother,” Hook said. Regina's eyes snapped up to meet Hook’s. “I get if you don't care about your own baby, but it's Emma's, too.”

“Regina, let's just talk about this later,” Emma pled.

Regina’s eyes met Emma's, and then she snapped them all up in her transportation spell. Back to Snow’s.

Regina walked directly to Snow, who was sitting at the table. “Blue is unconscious and the Captain is worthless. We have to bring this fight to her. The Black Fairy. Emma and I will bring Excalibur and Bewolf's sword.”

Emma grabbed her arm. “Regina, no. Hook was right.”

“Hook?” Snow was sitting at the table. “If you are going, Emma, I am going. I won't -”

“Fine,” Emma said. “Fine. But we're not sitting around any more. We have to move, now.”

“How will you open the Black Fairy’s banishment realm?” Regina’s voice sounded like a threat, sounded like she knew what Emma was about to do.

“I always knew. How to.” Emma put her hand on Regina's cheek and pressed their foreheads together. “We will be right back.”

When she released Regina, the magic-suppressing bracelet was on her. Emma turned to Henry. “Excalibur is in the vault. When you get there, take it off her.”

Henry nodded grimly, and Emma hugged him, placing a kiss on his head. “I love you, Henry,” she said.

And then she drew Bewolf's sword and cut a hole between worlds.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm having tons of fun with narrative styles! Hope this is a long-awaited shift & worthy of the wait.

When she was 32, Regina Mills killed the only family she ever truly had. She spent the next thirty years of her life seeking her father's replacement. Henry, and then Emma, and to a limited extent the rest by association. And now, a baby who seemed as intent as Emma and Henry upon offering an equal mix of joy and torment.

When Emma stepped through her portal, followed tightly by Snow, Marie twisted in displeasure, followed by a sharp snap of magic. Regina bit back a thousand curses for Emma and tried to wipe away her tears before Henry saw. “The overflow,” as Emma called it, which had seemed to have stopped entirely, but might have only paused. Regina had hoped that it was a second trimester blessing, among few others, but perhaps it was an Emma Swan blessing, to be withdrawn as abruptly as the woman herself.

Halfway on their drive to the vault, Henry pulled out his storybook and began scribbling. “Henry, what are you doing?” Regina asked, her bitterness with him insufficient to curtail her concern.

She pulled the car over when he didn't respond. She tried to force his head to face her, but he stayed stubbornly crouched over the book. Then she caught a glimpse of her son’s eyes, filmed over in white.

He finished the sentence and shook his head, his eyes back to brown.

“Henry, what was that? What happened to you?”

“What?” Henry said, and then he looked at the pen in his hands, and snapped the book closed. “I - I don't know!”

“Henry Daniel Mills, what happened to you? Are you all right?” Regina refused to allow her voice to waver, which meant that she was harsher than she'd intended, a slap to Henry harder than any physical blow.

“I'm fine, Mom,” he insisted, trying to put the book back in his bag. It was a tight fit, with his algebra book already in the bag.

“Is there something you've been concealing from me?” Regina tried to disappear the book into her hands, but of course without magic it didn't work. She instead grappled for the book with him, until she said, “I am your mother and I've found you out. Stop fighting, Henry.”

He let her take the book from him, and she had to move the seat so that she could fit the book between herself and the steering wheel. She opened it to the last page with writing on it.

_The Savior no longer flinched from the end. She approached it without question, unwilling to leave her family behind yet unable to save her brother without risking everything._

_The pirate’s hook, the witch’s most bitter foe, and the imp’s aborted child brought the Evil Queen to the missing half of the wand, but no further. She attempted all manner of sorcery upon the banishment realm, but she was never able to open a portal to reach her True Love._

_The Savior was gone for two long years. When she returned, everything had changed._

Henry read the words with her. She’d read them three times before he took the Author’s pen and struck out the last two lines.

The strike-through faded into the paper, leaving the words on the page.

Henry looked at her. “Remember, I said I wouldn't ever use the pen to change endings? Well, I've been trying. That's what happens. Look.” He wrote, _The Savior won the Final Battle._ The words faded.

Regina closed the book, and her eyes. Henry said, “I really didn't want to hide it from you, Mom, but I've got to keep you here and I am _so_ worried about you. Emma knows what she's doing. See - the book says she's coming back.”

“She did exactly what the Black Fairy wanted her to do,” Regina said, her eyes still closed. “Now she's trapped, too. Henry, her leg - in the banishment realm after two years? She won't be able to take her antibiotic.”

 _Two years._ Regina's ears rang with the words. She opened her eyes and leaned over the parking brake to cling to Henry, and Henry hugged her back bracingly. Regina had known Emma's promise was hollow, but she hadn't imagined that Emma would just disappear. Some part of her had already irrationally begun to think that Emma did this deliberately. Emma's wide-eyed flightiness was unmistakeable, especially after what Regina had told her in the wish realm. It shouldn't be a surprise that Emma’d had her final spook, after such a tight succession of scares.

But the storybook told a different tale. And Emma had given Regina her parents’ ring. She'd stayed with Regina's dark half for nearly a month. Against all reason, she loved the Evil Queen as well as she loved Regina. If that wasn't True Love… and the book had said it. Henry had finally written the words.

Regina was struck speechless by the improbability of it. Emma had said it, but Regina did not believe it until she saw it written indelibly. The daughter of Snow White, the Savior destined to break Regina's curse, the mother of Regina's son, brazen and nimble as an adversary as she was in Regina's bed. Regina did not know if she loved her first when their fingers brushed each other as Regina handed her the glass of apple cider when they met, or if it was at the collapsed mine shaft, or the beastly fire, and she didn't know if it was because it was Emma, athletic and piercingly acute, or because the Savior would change everything in Storybrooke, including turning the mayor's blood to wine and her heart from stone to flesh.

It didn't change the fact that Emma would _not_ be here in three months. Regina would face the birth of their daughter and the arrival of the Black Fairy, as she had faced everything else in life, alone.

She turned back on the car’s engine and pulled the seat forward again. She'd better get started on that sorcery the book mentioned, because if anyone did not accept what fate decreed of her it was Regina Mills. She would not stand idly by while her True Love was tortured by anyone but herself. And she had a wand to find.

* * *

Regina guessed the intention of the first part of the riddle was to actually gain the wayward Captain's allegiance, which required telling him everything, and showing him Henry's stories as proof - not only what Henry had written that day, but the ugly and brutal tale of Emma's time in Hades as well. She did so with as much grace as was possible, given the circumstances.

The Captain wasn't mentioned in the Author's tale, and Regina could not tell whether that was a blessing. It likely was - Emma had never spoken about their relationship with Regina, and in the narrative Hook was utterly eclipsed by Regina, their time in Camelot, and the days leading from that to Hades itself. And their unwanted child, of course, what Regina had done to save Emma, and how Emma hated her for it. The Author's pen did not mince words, which meant that Hook knew that Emma did not love him in Camelot. _The Dark One’s heart was consumed and transformed, and the Savior that remained after that transformation bore only a resemblance to the woman who had stepped forward in sacrifice._ That was as close as it got to addressing Emma's affair with the pirate.

And love itself, love was something inflicted upon Emma, until the latest installment. It was painfully accurate, a truth that Regina had thought herself habituated to, but which cut deeply when put into words. Obligation drove Emma back into Regina's arms, and not an answering need to that in Regina's heart. Having used infatuation toward her own purposes, Regina knew too well the disgust that accompanied the receipt of unreciprocated love. She walked a delicate line. But she could not refuse Emma’s body, when offered. She couldn't resist Emma’s pleasure, not when Emma touched her with such searing lust - not in Camelot, or in the Enchanted Forest, or even in her vault as the Queen, though at the time she had not even considered it. Regina had always imagined that it would hurt to have casual sex with someone you had loved with your entire being for so long. It didn't. What hurt was _not_ to touch Emma's willing body, when Emma could look at her with such eyes, and move like that into Regina, when she could orgasm so quickly and so many times.

And what of the dagger? What did the Author's pen write about their first week? The narrative did not excuse Regina for asking Emma for sex while Emma was under her thrall. But it did say one thing. _The command released the Dark One after one week, but her desires changed not at all._ Regina didn't know if Emma had ever read the story Henry had written, or even realized what she'd wanted - or whatever it was that the words meant. Regina knew only that she didn't understand Emma at all.

Often Regina looked back on that week with the thought that it was Graham again, Emma just a heart in Regina's hand to be abused and used, a body for Regina to pour her frustrations onto, to tear into with ravenous hunger and then discard as easily. Regina had imagined Emma on top of her, even before murdering Graham, even _with_ Graham. And did it matter that every moment with Emma was more precious to Regina than anything - that she wanted everything for Emma, that she wanted Emma to love her so badly that she would trade anything for Emma's breath close enough that Regina could drown in her? How could it matter, when the result was the same, when Regina five years later found herself raping another body? And how did Mayor Mills compare to the woman Emma had given her dagger to? Regina had hoped for nobility in heroism, only to surrender to lust the first time a hot body was offered to her.

Not a hot body. _Emma Swan._ The person who started the clock tower, and Regina's heart, on the same day.

It was nothing Regina could ever discuss with Emma. No matter how she tried to express her regret, it wasn't possible to apologize adequately while clinging in desperation to the very thing gained by your indiscretion.

It would all be so much less complicated without the baby. Emma's obligation would not exist. Having Emma in her bed would be much easier to justify if she didn't know that Emma thought of her, first and foremost, for better but mostly for worse, as the mother of her daughter.

Regina could also not convince herself that her choice of vessel was the right one. What if they had just used a felon, and killed him? But the Apprentice’s hat had been destroyed. Regina was uncertain she could ever dislodge the darkness from Emma at all, let alone coax it into the correct body. She'd only had a few hours. What she had to do was obvious. And that, Emma had appeared to consent to. Uninformed consent, but consent.

Consent? What did Regina know about consent? Evidently nothing whatever. What did consent matter, when for so many years Regina's own body had been another piece on the chessboard, another weapon to leverage in the game of power? Regina was so divorced from her own body by the life she'd led that even the idea of rape was difficult to conceptualize. Especially when the body under your hands responded in such satisfaction. Regina had had sex that had hurt her, made her bleed even though she wasn't a virgin any more, with someone who didn't care about anything but a male heir. She had not done that to Emma.

She, Henry, and Emma's discarded lover worked on the rest of the storybook's riddle together. Blue had been conspicuously absent, but Regina knew that it must be an obfuscation, maybe intended to keep her from the trail. Obviously the riddle itself was both a distraction and a clue. What else could possibly keep Regina from unlocking what Emma had so easily cracked - the way into the Black Fairy's realm?

Regina allowed herself long days of resentment. Emma was headstrong and incautious, and somehow had continued to disregard logic in favor of reckless self-sacrifice. She acted like it was her own sacrifice to make. As if it wasn't Regina, Henry, and their child that she hurt - and endangered.

Because a week after Regina shared the story Henry had written with the pirate, Henry was again compelled to add to the storybook. This time it was a full-page illustration. Emma's infant daughter was blond, tiny in Regina's arms as they faced the Black Fairy, alone.


	21. Chapter 21

Sharing Henry with Emma had not been easy, but it was leagues away from sharing him with Neal from the wish realm. Even after Charming, Snow, and Robin returned to their homes and their perfect manufactured life, this Neal remained. He insisted on a portal a week to visit his realm, and then another portal to return to Storybrooke the next week. Every time he walked through the portal door into Storybrooke, Regina was disappointed. He got a temporary job at the mechanic’s, which paid enough that he moved into the mechanic’s spare room. Regina took pains not to speak with him, arranging the portal at the same time every week and acknowledging him just long enough to open it. A gross abuse of magic, she thought, but she had started doing it for the Enchanted Forest and it would be unfair to discriminate.

It was actually jealousy, of course, and Regina knew herself well enough to admit it. Every time her Henry returned from a day with him, he beamed all night. He hadn't known Neal long enough to recognize the differences that inevitably were there - or he didn't care. Henry's clothing style instantly changed. Henry had never been influenced by a man in Regina's life - not Robin, or Graham, and certainly not Hook. David, maybe, although David had been awkward around his daughter and grandson and certainly never arranged to see Henry separately from family affairs.

But wish Neal exerted an influence upon Henry that was disproportional and impossibly irritating, and Regina could do nothing about it. Finally the Henry from the wish realm began visiting, too. He was a brat and a bully, terrible to Henry. Regina tried to force Neal to enroll the boy in the school, as law enforcement in Storybrooke was abruptly understaffed and there was a spike in vandalism whenever the hooligan was visiting, but Neal wouldn't do it.

Hook was the obvious replacement for Emma, but pridefully refused the appointment without offering any justification. Was the Sheriff's Department irreparably demasculinized by Emma? Regina had the dwarves pull double shifts instead.

Along with the minor daily disasters involved in single-handedly running the administration of a small town that was still attempting, in a controlled spiral of chaos, to replace Dark Curse infrastructure with functional 21st century technology on a medieval tax base; the pressing and supposedly impossible task of retrieving Emma from the banishment realm; and the increasingly intrusive effects of pregnancy entering the third trimester, Regina was triple-booked. She'd proactively fired the Director of Public Works two years ago and replaced him with an interim director, an internal promotion contingent upon performance, and his replacement was as shockingly inept as the Dark Curse’s director had been. A few weeks after Rumplestiltskin met his unfortunate end, Regina had asked Belle to directly assist him, expecting unimpressive results from the sheltered daughter of a minor baron, but continuing to nurse her guilt over what was, at the end of the day, one of the very worst of the punishments she'd inflicted upon the people of Storybrooke during the Dark Curse. The position hadn't been meant to report directly to Regina, and so maintained the distance Regina had so carefully fostered between them.

But Belle had blown her away. As the Evil Queen, Regina continued to meet directly with Belle on relevant matters, and in a minor fit of irritation she'd liberated the interim director’s head from his body and installed Belle as his replacement.

That had been only two weeks before Emma's disappearance, and while Regina regretted the bloodshed she did not regret her choice. Belle was the only bright spot in an otherwise bleak situation. They were wrapping up a late-night meeting over the sewage leak that plagued the southern reaches of town when Regina asked her, in the most delicate terms possible, if Gold had any artifacts that might be considered dead pre-term babies.

Belle had given her a long look, and Regina finally told her plainly what the book’s riddle had said. She also told Belle that Emma was likely not going to return before the baby was born, and what that seemed to mean for Regina and Marie.

Belle said she'd look into the first question but that she had a solution to the second problem. “Two years? If what you need is time, we both know of a stasis that will hold you as you are, until Emma returns.”

Regina sat back in her chair. “Impossible,” she concluded.

“Henry can wake you if we need you here.” Belle was animated. “He can wake you every month and you can make sure everything is working OK.”

“I would never.” It was not that the idea was a bad one. But to lay in sleep waiting for Emma for two years, to preserve her body in its current state - the powerlessness of waiting, the uncertain outcome, and the fragility of the current state of affairs…  Regina didn't need to explain these things to Belle. “What if something happens to Henry, and I am not here to protect him? Nobody else would be able to wake me. Without Emma and… Gold,” she forced out, even though it was true that Gold would have protected the town in his own way, “and David, and Snow… who is here? It would be baring my neck to the Dark Fairy. I won't play directly into her hand.”

“Well,” Belle said, and shrugged. “Just an idea.” She left.

The idea remained. Emma had once suggested accelerating Regina's pregnancy, and the opposite was now needed. The concept was similar. An aging powder taken internally would act on the baby. Magic followed its own rules. If Regina prepared an apple like the one she had used on Snow, and Henry woke her from the enchanted sleep… that wouldn't work, because Regina and the baby would be considered the same entity. No - something more targeted would be needed, something that acted only upon her baby.

And when Emma returned? How would the baby be removed from the stasis? They would undoubtedly need to cut the baby out of her to wake her. Regina wouldn't go into labor with a baby that was sleeping - not so early.

Which meant that Regina had another two months before she would do this. The baby would not be able to grow inside her once she induced sleep. The plan required that she accept full-term pregnancy for nearly two years. And that was assuming that Regina's body did not immediately reject the child. That was the more likely scenario, especially with Marie fully grown and ready.

She wished that she could ask Marie what to do. Emma had called their baby a _god._ The painful magical overflow from the baby - the dark ultrasound picture - and Emma's dream of the dragon - it was difficult to call any of these signs adequate. “God” was, maybe, the only word that applied. Not Rumplestiltskin at his peak, or Merlin before he was trapped by Nimue in that tree, but both of them at once, a child conceived in desperation using an ancient Mesopotamian spell that _shouldn't have worked,_ and the daughter of the Savior. If only True Love had been involved, Regina would feel more secure in the baby’s goodness. Or if Emma had been a less active parent so far, or if Emma wanted the baby - if Emma had loved Regina for what she'd done, and cherished the life they had made, rather than hating her and fearing the baby.

As it was, Marie already wavered on the cusp of darkness. A darkness that Regina was nearly powerless to dispel, especially with the baby trapped in her womb. It had taken long enough to stabilize Marie after the first time Emma had touched her. Regina only recognized the damage Emma had done the next morning. It had been a long night for their daughter, alone with that - whatever Emma had expressed in their moment of communication.

And the Evil Queen had been unequivocally loving, but hadn't exactly fostered the atmosphere of security that Regina thought Marie needed. The Queen was unstable and grasping, a child herself. Like Emma was, in her worst moments.

Or maybe it was the war between the darkness and the light, the war that Emma had called torture. Emma would know. Regina heard the seductive call of darkness herself, but this battle had never erupted from her body, as this magic clearly did. It wasn't the same as what Emma had experienced - Marie was not dying, would not die - but it was not nothing. Would their daughter's edges blur as Emma's had? Would she be born screaming and never stop? Or would she be born silent and never speak? What was the magic doing to her mind? And did she feel pain? Regina could not tell, through the spell she used. She could not share her daughter's thoughts, or share in her body. All she could do was to communicate emotions, vague and imprecise.

Or it could be Regina herself. Emma was truly good. Regina acted like she was good. That was why the Queen had been the original - why Regina could not die, while separated from her dark half. Her first and closest instinct was to murder and maim. She did not trust herself to act until she paused and reevaluated. She did not allow herself to do anything if the ferocious temper that she kept carefully in check was disturbed. She was caught between good and evil, fully committed to good but unable to extract herself from her past, from the person she truly was. Even her good half had actually stabbed Emma. That had been her brilliant solution - to confront the woman she loved with the intent to kill her.

Regina had never been fully confident that she _could_ kill Emma, although the thought of it had kept her awake on countless nights. A fantasy of murder that turned into sex, or sex that turned into murder, a fantasy that Regina had resisted because each possibility had been as abhorrent and attractive to her as the other. But the night of the confrontation, with Bewolf's sword, Evil Queen had reacted, had known what Regina intended, and that she could do it. Something in Regina's performance had compelled her. Only after they had rejoined did Regina discover that Emma had been having visions of dying by her hand all month.

The time without Emma passed in the blink of an eye, but there were long moments of pain. Waking without Emma there. Marie sending Regina the feeling of _Emma_ , the aura unmistakable and distinct, a question that Regina could not answer. _Soon,_ she wanted to promise. To lie.

Emma’s name was on the tip of her tongue. The feeling of her was heavy in Regina's heart. Two years? Two years seemed impossible. Yet three months passed too quickly, without Emma, with the impending nightmare that Henry had so beautifully illustrated.

When Belle brought her the dragon’s egg, she knew instantly that it was the solution to _that_ problem. And the Reul Ghorm offered something Regina badly needed - another magic user’s opinion.

They chose the room in the convent. The windows opened to a field of green grass, although it was the end of October. They prepared as if the Dark Fairy would come. There was a bed, and Regina did not ask them to change the sheets, although the pattern matched that of Henry's illustration.

She lay in the bed. It was possible that the curse would be laid on Regina, too. Anything was possible.

Regina cast the spell, enveloping Marie in a wave of comfort and hope tinged with fear. _Goodbye, my little one,_ she said, although Marie would not understand. Blue pricked Regina's belly with the spindle, and Regina's daughter slept for the first time.

Regina’s eyes did not close, and they all relaxed, until the first contraction.

“We’ll open the portal and send you through.” It was Zelena, perched on the bedside. It wasn't a terrible idea. Blue had told them that the Black Fairy’s trap for Emma was much less brutal than Regina had feared. _Time._ In her realm, time moved as fast or as slow as the Black Fairy wanted. Emma had likely only taken one step in the space of these endless three months, unhurt and clueless about what was happening. She wouldn't think to open the portal back until they had scooped Neal up, and who knew how long it would take them to find him?

Two years. Two years was how long it would take.

“The Black Fairy is there, waiting,” Regina told her. She stood, smoothing her clothes, beginning to pace. “How will I find Emma?”

“We’ll all go,” Henry said, his eyes bright. “We’ll go and get Emma. You won't be separated any more. You can face the Black Fairy together.”

Regina fought through another contraction. It was happening too quickly. She cursed her own body, hoping that Marie was not in danger.

“Do it,” she told Blue, and Blue took the wand and waved it.

A hole opened, golden on its edges, black within. Blue was shaking her head. “Something isn't right. This might not be the right realm. I think - I think it's a different realm.”

Of course it wouldn't work. Henry's illustration was clear. Marie wouldn't be born anywhere but this bed. Should Regina accept Belle’s original idea, and go into the enchanted sleep herself? It would freeze her body. She was in labor.

Dread coursed through her. This was punishment, a symmetrical destiny to that of Emma and Snow, so long ago. Snow had planned to escape the Dark Curse before her baby was born, but it wasn't meant to be. Ten minutes longer was all she had needed, and she could have raised Emma. Emma wouldn't have had Henry, and she wouldn't have been so scarred by it that she had to run from Regina.

It was grasping at straws, drawing connections where there were none. But Regina did know one thing - she deserved this. Marie didn't, but Regina did. If Regina could send Marie away, to safety but far from her, could she make that decision? If it meant Marie would be safe, she'd do it. But Emma had not been safe.

It wasn't an option, so it didn't matter. The portal closed, and they stood in silence.

“The Land Without Magic. The Black Fairy wouldn't be able to -”

Blue shook her head. “Where do you think the stories of Changelings come from? All you would be doing is robbing us of our ability to fight back.”

Of course it wouldn't work. _Emma, move faster. Run. Bring Neal back, right now._

Killian lurked in the corner of the room with Excalibur. A wild card, but Killian would not turn on Regina unless he thought it was best for Emma. He couldn't. What else did Killian Jones want? Gold was dead. Maybe Killian wanted revenge against Regina, for whatever he imagined she'd done. For everything she'd done. Still, he held the sword. Regina stopped herself from snatching it from him with her magic. She had to trust him. She had to trust everyone in this room.

What was the witch’s bitterest foe? Something to do with Robin. Robin was with Belle, far away. Being separated from her daughter would be the worst punishment imaginable for Zelena. But Blue had the wand, not Zelena. Zelena wouldn't be trapped in another realm, away from Robin. It had to be something else.

Regina leaned against the windowsill and cursed, a curse for every day that Emma was gone.

Henry put his hand on her shoulder, and she straightened, looking at him in misery. “It's OK, Mom,” he said. “You've got us. You're not alone, no matter what.”

Regina nodded. But what he said wasn't precisely right. He was trying to comfort her because he knew that was what she feared. But Regina had never been alone, while facing the Black Fairy. There were three people in Henry's drawing.  

Regina had wanted a baby. She'd accepted the reality of labor, imagining that it was just another painful but surmountable challenge. To carry and birthe Emma's baby - it would be hard, but not terrible. Nothing could rob Regina of the reality, that this was everything that she'd wanted, a baby of her own body, and Emma's. _Emma._ Regina spun Charming’s ring on her finger. It fit, even with her fingers swollen. It was something to focus on, while her body came apart in the most painful way possible. Maybe she'd say yes, when Emma returned. Could Regina say yes, when the proposal was forced from Emma by her mother and the awful looming _obligation_ that had tainted every moment since Marie’s conception? Regina wished she'd never read the story Henry wrote about Emma. If she hadn't known better, Emma would have convinced her that they were in love.

 _She was never able to open a portal to reach her True Love._ Did it mean that the Black Fairy took Marie, after all? It wasn't possible that the book meant Emma. Emma didn't love her.

She spun the ring and turned over Emma in her mind, until the day became night. It was October 30th. Marie would be born at midnight, the night before Samhain, All Hallow’s Eve. Regina had been careful about timing. The night before. Not the night _of._ There was no turning, yet, from summer to winter. All of the power of the summer was behind Marie.

She watched the clock as midnight ticked closer. Killian slept in the corner of the room, Excalibur propped between his legs. It would come down to the sword. Regina wondered how to tell him that she trusted him with their only chance.

Zelena had left during the day, but she was back now. The pain of labor faded into the ticking of the clock. They didn't need to do anything but wait.

“Killian, wake up,” Zelena said, shaking him. “Two minutes.”

“Till what?” he said, bleary.

“Midnight. You have to kill the Black Fairy with that sword. Get ready. She's coming.”

“Right,” Killian said, and Regina could hear him stand, leather creaking as he stretched.

The clock struck, and Marie was born on the third knell. Without hesitation, Blue pulled the motionless baby from between Regina's legs and put her in Regina's arms. Regina kissed her bloody head and she stirred weakly.

And the Black Fairy appeared. Blue opened the portal behind her. Zelena snapped the magic bracelet on her wrist.

Regina saw nothing but the newborn in her arms. “Marie,” she whispered. “Wake up, my love. I need you. Help me.”

Marie took one shuddering breath and cried, magic seeping from her, and Regina took it from her, trusting in the light. The portal was gone, taking Blue and Zelena with it. The magic bracelet was on the ground.

Regina blasted the fairy with the combined magic, the dark and the light, and Regina's own dark magic. Killian came up behind the fairy, and Excalibur sprouted from the fairy’s chest. Regina snapped the magic away before the fairy disappeared. Not yet dead, but perhaps beaten. Now it was up to Emma.


	22. Chapter 22

The portal was red and gold bordered, and entirely black on the inside, a void that Emma instantly flinched from. She looked back briefly, to the familiar surroundings of her mother’s apartment. She met Henry's soft brown eyes and the eyes of Regina, simmering with resentment and something Emma couldn't name. And then she turned to the portal.

She wouldn't flinch. If this was her destiny, she would meet it without hesitation or regret. Neal had nobody but her, and her mother. She would not suffer a world in which they would not be enough.

But before she touched the portal, Mary Margaret's hand caught her arm, pulling her back with an insistence that felt strange to Emma. She turned partially away. “What?”

Mary Margaret was vague. Her eyes were faraway. “Emma… we can't.”

Emma twisted out of her hand. “We have to.”

“Stop!” Mary Margaret said, and this time it was a command. “It's already happened. Whatever she was going to do to him, she has already done. We can't do this.”

“What are you saying?” Emma's voice was ragged with it. They couldn't be too late. She wouldn't allow it.

But Mary Margaret wasn't looking at Emma. She was looking at Regina. “Who is Marie?” Regina was stiff and still. “She told me… she told me it's a trap. That we have to stay.”

“Neal!” The word burst from Emma's lips. “We have waited too long.”

 _“Too long,”_ Mary Margaret's eyes were filled with helpless tears. “I have not been enough to protect my child from this. I have not been enough to protect either of my children. But please, Emma, allow me this. Let me to protect my granddaughter.”

Mary Margaret's eyes met Regina's, and Emma knew, somehow, deep and also in a shallow wave of euphoria, that her daughter's name was Marie.


	23. Chapter 23

“What did you see?” Emma said, gripping Snow’s arm tightly. When Snow moved slowly, she looked at Regina, whose face was expressionless. Dread pooled in her stomach. She tried with Snow again. “Mom, what happened?”

“Close the portal,” Snow said, and Emma released her. With a wave of Bewolf's sword, the portal closed, upon the sword’s flat edge. As she did so, Emma felt a great fading. The energy that had driven her so quickly toward her fate - it dissipated, leaving a sense of confusion. She _had_ been moving too quickly. Regina had just said that they needed more information before they confronted the Black Fairy. But she had stood silently as Emma opened the portal. She hadn't resisted Emma's choice.

Snow was still looking vague, the tears streaking on her face. Emma turned to Regina and gripped the cuff on Regina's wrist. She cut it carefully off her with the sword, and then sheathed the sword, a mountainous feat with a sheath across your back. “I'm so sorry,” she whispered, and Regina scoffed, raising an eyebrow and turning slightly away from her.

Emma put her hand on Regina's waist, and Regina leaned into her. Emma wrapped her arms around Regina, comforting. She buried her face in Regina's hair, inhaling her. No disaster had befallen them. But felt like they had been so, so close to - to what? What had almost happened?

They turned to Snow, who was watching with a soft smile. “What did you see?” Regina asked Snow.

“I saw… the future.”

Regina nodded impatiently, and Emma remembered that the Merlin of lore was supposed to be prescient. He was also supposed to age backwards, though, so that didn't seem too reliable. _The Light One._ Easy enough to forget that he was there, too. It was not only Nimue who haunted Emma’s daughter.

“Only a little, but - I saw a grown man inside the portal, strung up by his hands. He is going to save all the children stolen by the Black Fairy, one day. And… I saw Regina giving birth to a _beautiful_ baby girl.” A shadow passed over her expressive face. “Without you, Emma.”

“What, was she… was she dead?” Regina's voice was harsh and tight.

“Marie?” Emma clarified, and Regina tightened her arm around Emma's waist, looking at Emma.

“No,” Snow said, brow crinkling. “Marie wasn't. I don't know where Emma was.”

“What about Neal?” Emma asked quietly.

“I didn't see him. We have to wake Blue, I think.” Snow fell back into vagueness.

“But we can't,” Emma said.

Regina shifted in her arms, moving away. “We don't know how. But I know who might.”

“Gold. But he’s dead.”

Regina was looking at Zombie David and Zombie Snow. “Say your farewells. I will open the portal at four.”

David nodded stiffly, and Regina swept out of the loft. Emma and Henry followed in her wake, exchanging a look. They were at the bottom of the stairs when Regina turned to them briskly. “Henry, we are going to the Town Hall. Will you please find Belle and bring her to my office when we arrive?”

* * *

“How much time do we have?” Emma locked the mayor’s office door behind them.

“Six minutes?” Regina breathed. Emma skipped her lips and went straight to her neck, hands greedy on Regina's body. She wore a blue dress that Emma was hiking up, and Regina was arching and gasping, grinding her hips against Emma's.

“Jesus fuck, that felt so close to losing you,” Emma said. Her hands were shaking. Everything was shaking. She pinched Regina's nipple hard and they were at the desk, and Emma's hand was all the way up her dress and cupping her. She could feel Regina's wetness through her clothing.

Regina waved her hand at the windows and the blinds shot down. She leaned back against the edge of the desk and followed Emma's hand up her leg to pull down her pantihose.

Emma reached through space, twisting her hand, and the magic dildo was in it. Regina growled at that, but Emma checked anyway, “Is this all right?”

“Yes, faster, Emma. I need you now.”

Emma unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them down over her ass, as Regina grasped the dildo with one hand and Emma's breast with the other. Emma pushed her underwear out of the way and slipped the curved end of the dildo inside herself, easily, nearly surprised at how soaked she was. She'd been totally focused on Regina's body.

Regina's hand remained on the upright dildo, and as the magic took it over Regina started stroking it, her hand all the way around it, long, fast motions. Emma's eyes rolled back and her hands went to Regina's wetness, fingers plunging through in a hot mess, disorganized and blind with lust. Regina was swollen and soaked, wetness overflowing.

She needed to be inside Regina. She pushed Regina's hand away from her, recognizing a moment later how close an accidental orgasm had been, and put her wet hands around Regina's ass, helping her sit on the desk. Their bodies were separated by the pantihose, still partially up Regina's legs.

Emma slid her hands up Regina’s thighs to her knees and pushed them up, forcing Regina to fall back on her elbows. Regina let her, watching with dark eyes. With Regina's legs up the dildo finally was able to rub against Regina's wetness, and Emma grunted, her hips jerking forward, blind again, desperate only to be surrounded by that clenching hotness that she could feel at her tip.

She resisted, instead rotating her hips and letting Regina grind down against her needily. “Oh, Emma, please,” Regina begged, and Emma grabbed her pantihose where they locked her legs together and pulled them up, moving Regina's legs straight up, not allowing their bodies to separate at the hips. The shaft of the dildo slipped through Regina's wetness and up between her thighs, which were pressed together, and Emma thrust once, relishing in how wet Regina was, that the wetness had already slicked her thighs, feeling the sensation of faux fucking light her cock in pleasure. Regina moaned and rotated her hips, seeking direct contact. She must have kicked off her heels before, because no footwear rained on Emma's head as she yanked off the interfering pantihose.

Emma pulled back and lined the dildo up with Regina's entrance, and Regina's legs instantly fell around Emma's hips, drawing her into her body. Emma paused one moment longer, trying to take Regina in, her hair in disarray, flushed and glorious, laying on the desk ready to be fucked. “Oh, Regina, you're so fucking beautiful.”

“Talk to me after you're inside,” Regina growled. “Make me come, Emma.”

Emma nodded. Her hands had settled on Regina's hips, and she used her grip to hold Regina's body, stopping her from sliding up the desk as she pressed the dildo inside her.

Regina was so wet that Emma met no resistance whatever. When she was buried to the hilt, Regina's body open and waiting around her, Emma paused again. Like the first time, with the Evil Queen, she felt the orgasm close. Emma doubted that Regina wanted the kind of post-high fuck that Emma would give her afterward. She had to wait, even though Regina was moaning and grinding, rutting really, her clit touching Emma's stomach in soft probing motions. Emma reached around Regina's leg, brushing the swell of her belly, and hooked her thumb against Regina, giving her something more substantial to grind against while Emma staved off the orgasm.

Regina’s hips jerked and she fell entirely back on her desk. “Emma, fuck me,” she begged, voice high, and Emma began short thrusting motions into her. Regina moved with her, hips jerking under Emma's thumb, and Emma kept her left hand securely around Regina's hip, holding her stable while Emma increased the pace.

Regina made an incoherent sound and Emma grinned, suddenly, the lust of the moment giving way to joy. “I can't believe this is the first time,” she said.

“What?”

“Because I've imagined you on your back on this desk so many times.”

Regina rolled her eyes.

“I really - wanted to fuck you - when you told me you were nominating Sydney for Sheriff. You were so fucking pleased with yourself and I wanted to see you - see you needing me, like this. So - so beautiful, Regina.” Her voice lowered to barely a breath. “I knew what I could do to you.” She focused on her thumb, keeping the touch light but persistent, brushing Regina's sensitive nerves while she angled her hips and the dildo toward Regina's top wall. Her concentration was rewarded by a hot flood from Regina, and then Emma was coming, her hips jerking forward mindlessly, and Regina watched her, eyes flickering with something unreadable.

Emma fell forward when she was finished, catching herself with her hands, resting her cheek against Regina's stomach. Regina put her hands in her hair. “Emma, put that away. Belle will be here.”

Emma rolled her hips, and Regina responded by thrusting up to draw Emma in, twice. “You need me inside you,” Emma informed her.

Regina moaned. “Tonight.”

Emma pulled carefully out and dropped to her knees, burying her face between Regina's legs. Regina liked penetration, loved making Emma come, but wouldn't come herself unless Emma was licking her.

“No, Emma, we don't have time.” It was a real “No,” and Emma pulled away, disappointed. She removed the dildo from herself, and helped Regina stand, finding her pantihose before stowing the dildo in Regina's desk (“for later,” she whispered, and was rewarded by another exasperated eye-roll) and fastening her own pants, feeling the stickiness between her legs. A knock came at the door, as if on cue, and Regina sat at her desk, likely to conceal the inevitable wet stains that must be on her dress. Emma got the door.

Henry and Belle sat at the two chairs across from Regina's, and Emma stood behind Regina, unwilling to tolerate even a few inches of space between their bodies. She stopped just short of putting her hand on Regina's shoulder, which felt paternal and wrong.

“Belle… you must be aware of our… visitors.”

Belle’s eyes skipped between Emma and Regina. “From Emma's wish realm?”

“Yes. Each of us had an analogue, except Emma, and - well - I had been dead in that realm, for a long time.” Regina paused, and Emma could tell that she was giving Belle a chance to interrupt if she was uncomfortable with the direction of their conversation.

Belle took the opportunity. “You need something from Rumple.”

Emma spoke quickly. “We would never ask you to do something that makes you uncomfortable. The people from the wish realm are…”

“Imperfect copies,” Regina supplied.

“He might stalk you. He could become a serious problem. He's currently locked in my parents’ dungeon.”

“I know you have a trip planned next month,” Regina added. “If he tries to keep you in the wish realm, and you do not want to stay, you know that you have allies in us.”

Belle looked nervous. She bit her lip and nodded. “And what deal would you make?”

* * *

Rumplestiltskin cackled. To Emma he was still the man who haunted her every moment as the Dark One. He _was_ the Dark One. There must be a copy of the dagger here. Two Dark Ones, meeting for the first time. Emma took a short step to block Regina, putting her hand behind her to grasp Regina's hand.

Regina squeezed back, hard. Rumplestiltskin continued to look at Regina's belly, as if he could see straight through Emma.

And then his eyes tore away, confusion twisting his golden features grotesquely. “Belle?”

Belle summoned a watery smile. “Rumple. You remember me?”

“Belle. Of course, of course, _of course I remember you._ ” His eyes went back to Regina, this time to meet her eyes. “ _You.”_

“No, no, it wasn't - “ Belle gulped on the lie. “It wasn't Regina. The accident didn't happen in my realm. Do you see?” Her hands twisted.

“Balefire. Balefire has been all alone, for so long.” Rumplestiltskin’s face dropped. “He has had nobody.”

“In the Land Without Magic,” Emma affirmed, and then, in alarm, she remembered Neal. Neal of the wish realm. He had been a prince when they married. Her head spun.

Rumplestiltskin was looking at her with eyes filled with guile. “In a little cottage in the south of this land,” he said slowly. “The cottage which I asked Belle to help keep during my travels.” He tisked. So Neal and Balefire were different people, here? “You are here for a reason. What do you require of me?”

“The Blue Fairy has been trapped in a sleep that is close to death,” Regina said from behind Emma.

“Ohhh,” Rumplestiltskin said, in pure delight. “So the mother of Apocalypse speaks.”

“You will be silent or I will cut your tongue out,” Emma spat, certain in that moment that she meant it. Her hand closed on Bewolf's sword.

“And her _Savior,_ Emma Swan, fated to die. What a pair you make, and your nest-making for a child that will never be.”

 _“Shut up, Gold,”_ Emma grated. She squeezed her eyes shut against the memory of the dragon.

Regina stepped up behind her, close enough that the warmth of her presence could invade the cold that had filled Emma's chest. Regina interlaced their fingers and Emma felt a ring on her hand. Regina never wore a ring.

She remembered. A lifetime ago. Prince Charming’s ring. Regina was wearing it? On her left ring finger? When had she put it on? How had Emma forgotten?

Delight overpowered her fear and doubt. Even if Regina would never express her feelings, she had more than considered Emma's proposal. She wore the ring. It was as good as “yes.”

“Look,” Emma said. “We need your help, and it sounds like you want someone to help take care of… Balefire. If you will tell us how to make the Blue Fairy wake, we will take care of him.”

 _“I_ will,” Belle said. “Please, Rumple.”

“Why, certainly,” Rumplestiltskin said. His face was again distorted in delight. “I would love to help you revive your little _fairy.”_

They all waited, unwilling to guess what his demand would be. He let the moment stretch, the smile plastered to his face like a mask.

“I, of course, cannot diagnose something I cannot see. Take me to her.” He waved at the gate with a flourish.

Belle spoke first. “In my land, you trusted me with your dagger. You don't remember, but it was important to both of us.” Emma didn't know if it was a lie, or the truth. It didn't matter - this Rumplestiltskin listened. “Tell me where your dagger is, Rumple. Let us retrieve it, and we will bring you to our land.”

Rumplestiltskin considered for only a second. “Deal.”


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the slow-down. I'm going through a brutal breakup and move-out, etc.
> 
> Also, yes, this is wrapping up. Not 100% sure if I have one chapter or two left. Or three, who knows. Bad at planning.

In the Land Without Magic, Rumplestiltskin’s skin lost its sheen. He nearly looked like Gold, but without the memories and identity of the pawnbroker and landowner. The insanity that Gold had so carefully concealed was still bright in this man’s eyes, and his head cocked unnaturally, wit and madness intermingled in the lazer gaze. And his leather vest did not change into a respectable suit, further damaging the illusion of humanity.

Everyone in Storybrooke knew he was dead, and they watched in trepidation as he paraded around the town. Emma had traded Bewolf’s sword for Excalibur when they ventured into the wish realm, always careful to have the only instrument that they knew could destroy the light and the dark. Emma had happily and completely blocked off the implication of this decision-making.

The point was, however, not lost on Rumplestiltskin. She carried the sword so that she would be able to kill either her daughter or her lover. He didn't hesitate to point it out. The taunting was at best irritating. Emma was relieved when his hands landed upon the dragon’s egg. He cackled. “My twin truly brought all his treasures along, didn't he? Oh, I thought it was lost.” His eyes turned to Regina. “Deeply beholden to him, were you not?”

Regina didn't respond, and, inevitably, his eyes dropped to look at her stomach. Emma stepped between them, crutch echoing loudly in the shop. “Get on with it,” she said tightly.

He waved his hand at her. “You are as much smoke,” he said to her. “The phantom of a Savior that has lingered past her due. Your protection means nothing to them.”

Regina put her hand on Emma's arm, pulling her out of the way. “This will wake Blue?”

“Yes yes yes,” he said. “This is all you require of me? Now, will you let me find my son?”

“You will stay here, with Belle,” Regina told him. She looked at Belle, and it wasn't a question. The Regina Emma knew would have asked, but this Regina was driven, focused, and she did not ask. She commanded, and Belle nodded slightly, lowering her eyes. Emma had never so clearly seen the Evil Queen in Regina, not since the wish realm - not since they had rejoined.

With a wave of her hand, they transported to the convent. Blue lay in her stasis in one of the second-storey rooms. The sheets had a distinctive blue and white Gingham pattern, and the window looked out on an expanse of green grass that led to the forest.

Regina placed the egg on a nearby chair, and took another. Emma jumped to help her carry the chair to the bedside, although she was barely a help with the crutch in one hand. Her leg had torn that day, and she couldn't put weight on her bloody and pussing thigh.

“How do you know what to do?” she asked.

Regina shook her head, but she took Emma's hand and placed it on the egg. “A dragon’s egg, rare. This one lacked the warmth it needed to live, but it was close to being hatched. The mother may have been detained, or she might have been killed. It only would take an hour of her absence to kill the egg.”

“OK,” Emma said, not fully grasping what Regina was trying to say. Then Regina's hand began to heat, and Emma snatched hers away. “I see,” she said. “You're going to hatch a dragon right now.” The dragon from Hades reimposed itself in her mind. Was it a prophecy?

But Regina just laughed. “Not at all. If it were that easy, the mother would have revived this egg. But once the egg is warm enough, it will break open and release the gasses inside. They should be enough to wake Blue.”

“That easy?” Emma shook her head.

"Not easy," Regina said. Emma went to her knees, putting the crutch on the ground, and put her hand back on the egg. It was cold where Regina's hand wasn't touching, and Emma closed her eyes and summoned a heat that was close to fire. It didn't come easily to her. Lightning was her magic’s version of Regina's fire balls. Like the Emperor of Star Wars, except maybe less evil.

“This OK?”

“Perfect,” Regina said, eyes crinkled. Their hands on the egg felt right, like they were doing magic together, like they were making something good out of something that wasn't. Together they heated the egg, until a crack appeared in its surface.

Regina stood and walked rapidly away, throwing open the window and actually putting her head through it. Emma followed suit, glancing back to where Blue was nearly obscured by a thick cloud of green gas.

The gas abruptly dissipated, leaving Blue coughing on the bed. Regina went directly to the smoking egg, disappearing it in a puff of purple.

Emma knelt by Blue’s bedside. “Are you all right? What happened to you?” Her teeth and the whites of Blue’s eyes were greenish.

“The Black Fairy,” Blue managed. “She attacked me. She was only able to hurt me, despite her best efforts to kill me.”

Emma nodded. “Hook said she is after me. I can open a portal to her land, but -”

“Be careful,” Blue said, and then she devolved into a fit of coughing. “She can change the way that time moves in her realm. She can slow it to a crawl. If you go, she can slip out and do anything she wants in this world before you are able to find her in her realm.”

Emma's eyes met Regina's. That was what Marie had warned them of.

“But she has taken Neal.”

“Your brother?” Blue shook her head slowly. “How long?”

“Nearly a day, now,” Emma told her.

“It could have been a century in her land,” Blue said.

“We have to save him,” Emma said urgently.

“What is she after? What do you have, Emma?”

Emma looked again at Regina. She still wore the blue pencil dress, and their baby was a swell of her stomach.

“My daughter,” Emma said, swallowing. Had she ever said those words? Her throat was dry. “When I was the Dark One…”

Blue shook her head as if this was old news. “She is your child?” she asked instead.

“Yeah,” Emma said.

“If you go into the Black Fairy's realm, you must go together,” Blue said.

Regina raised her eyebrows at Emma, and Emma nodded. “I understand. I won't let Regina out of my sight.”

“Hook brought this,” Regina said, her tone precise and icy, offering the half-wand to Blue. “Do you have its other half?”

Blue took the wand. “Yes, but - this wand will not help. It only creates a new banishment realm. It will not defeat the Black Fairy.”

“Why is she so intent upon separating us?” Regina asked Blue.

Blue only shook her head. “The three of you together are too powerful for her to face. She could fight Regina alone, and take your child. But with Excalibur, and your magic, Emma, I do not doubt that you would triumph. Excalibur is a powerful weapon against her - against anyone. And the magic that the three of you could summon…”

Regina nodded. “We will go to her realm, now, and get Neal. Anything else we should know?”

Blue shook her head, and Emma huffed in irritation and picked back up her crutch.

* * *

The Black Fairy's realm was dark. As Snow had described, a man was suspended by his wrists in the center of a round platform, right in front of the portal Emma had opened. He was naked, except for a loincloth. Snow ran to him, and Emma hobbled after her, with Regina in tight lockstep beside her. He babbled incoherently at Snow as Regina severed the cord that suspended him with Excalibur. He fell to the ground, and Snow caressed his head, drawing it against her chest.

“Ma,” he said. “Ma.”

“We should go,” Regina said quietly.

“What about Neal?” Snow looked up at Emma with eyes that swam, and white magic crackled from the man’s fingertips. Magic like Emma's, the magic of -

“Oh,” Emma muttered, and Snow put the man’s arm over her shoulder.

“Come,” Snow whispered. “Come on, my sweet baby boy. We're getting you out of here.”

* * *

It wasn't enough. To kiss Regina, to have their skin together, to touch Regina deeply and have her wrapped in every piece around her - to lick her until she came, and to keep touching - it wasn't enough, and Emma could feel how Regina must agree, because after every time they ended, when Emma reached for her again, Regina met her halfway. Their bodies together reached for heights, and having achieved the highest pinnacle they reached higher still.

Finally it was three in the morning and their bodies couldn't sustain any more. Emma's heart was full and empty. They clung tightly together, and Regina was so dark and soft and her eyes depthless and - Emma could almost see it - solemn? Distant, too far away. Emma kissed her lips and grabbed her hip, drawing their bodies together again. Their stomachs met. How could they be closer? But when Emma broke the kiss to look at her, Regina had the same look. What was she thinking?

“Hey,” Emma tried. Her voice was gravelly, from long minutes spent yelling in their sound-proofed room. And maybe from nervousness.

Regina raised one perfect eyebrow, and somehow, despite her nakedness and despite the many intervening years, the look was as intimidating as it had been the very first time.

When that look was Regina's only answer, Emma said, “Hey, I noticed today you were, um, wearing the - the ring.” Her stomach dropped out.

“I was,” Regina confirmed, after a long and expressionless silence.

“We gonna talk about it?” Emma asked.

“I don't… think so.”

“Talking or… it? The ring.” _Getting married._

“Both,” Regina said, decisively. She turned in the bed, reaching for their discarded clothing, and the ring appeared in her hand. She turned to Emma and pressed it into her palm, closing Emma's fingers over it. “I can't marry you, Miss Swan.”

 _Fuck._ Regina didn't want to talk. Her answer was final. Why was Emma even here? How was there space for Emma in this bed? _Why?_ Emma squeezed the ring hard in her hand. She remembered Prince Charming in the storybook, offering it to Snow White.

Their story was not hers. Emma would have no life-shattering and easy love. She would only have the kind that fucked for hours with cold eyes and in almost the same breath rejected -

It was just marriage. It wasn't a future. They'd raised Henry together without being married. It was just Snow's stupid idea. Emma had thought it'd been the answer. It was too easy. Henry had said, _She deserves someone like Robin._ Robin Hood would not have proposed in a dark hospital room, from behind Regina, nearly hiding from her gaze. And the proposal didn't fix anything, not if Regina could still look like this. She was too cold, when all Emma could see was Regina's fire, the warmth of her.

Emma's hand was still on Regina's hip, although their bodies had parted when Regina twisted away. Emma pulled her hand off, trying not to fold into herself or wrap her arms around her own chest.

Something flickered in Regina's eyes, breaking the ice of her stare, and she reached out and touched Emma's cheek. Then she caught the tear that had pooled above the bridge of Emma's nose.

Emma turned violently around in the bed. Crying. Stupid Snow. Wasn't this good enough, how it was? Why did Emma have to push it?

Did Regina love her, after all - could she love her, and use her, so many times, in so many ways? And did Emma need her to love her? Regina had gotten what she wanted from Emma, after all, and she still wanted. If all she'd wanted was Emma's baby, that ship had already sailed and docked at a far distant port. If all she wanted was for Emma to fuck her every night, why did she keep her around for everything else? For chopping carrots that were always too large or too small.

The Evil Queen had loved Emma. The queen had wanted exquisitely detailed things from Emma, an enchanting web of words and hot, bright desire. But what was Regina thinking? This wordlessness was impossible to interpret. The queen was there, somewhere, behind the coldness. Even if she was only half of Regina, at least that half loved Emma.

Regina's hand slipped around Emma's waist, borrowing between her arm and her body to rest over Emma's heart. Her breasts touched Emma's back, and then her stomach and legs met Emma's skin. Emma grabbed her hand with a muffled sense of desperation and allowed herself one small sob. And then Regina nuzzled her neck and Emma's head was filled and empty with it, with the tangle of their legs and their fingers and whatever it was that consumed Emma's heart. Love.

 _I love you,_ Emma thought fiercely. She wished Regina could read the feeling through her pores. She wished she could turn in Regina's arms, look her in the eye, and say it.

Instead she let Regina kiss her neck softly, imagining their bodies to be connected through the contact of Regina's hand and Emma's heart. If this was everything, it would be enough. Emma would sleep in Regina's bed and it would be everything she wanted. Whatever it was that Regina wanted - it was what Emma wanted. Emma could at least be a lover who gave Regina that.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what this chapter is or where it came from or anything.

Regina was smaller when she slept. Their bodies had separated during the night, and in the white light that filtered through the window, between the white sheets of her bed, Regina’s skin was dark and her features sculpted by some great artist, the image of beauty, Aphrodite incarnate. Emma was instantly awake, although it couldn't be more than a few hours after they had gone to sleep. It was Tuesday, a work day, and David would expect to see her in just a few hours.

David, who was dead. Grumpy would expect to see her. Not David. The realization was a lump in Emma's throat.

Emma couldn't imagine shutting her eyes now, anyway, not now that Regina was sleeping and there was light enough to see her by. She had removed her makeup before bed, before their marathon lovemaking, and Emma was almost used to seeing her like this, just Regina, face bare, eyelashes nearly thin without the mascara, shoulders lighter in color than her stomach or her forearms.

Her stomach was much more visible when she was naked. Emma tried out the name that Regina had chosen. _Marie._ Marie was more than a swell. Emma could see where the stretch marks would begin to show, how the growing child would settle between Regina's hips, although she was higher now. Regina did not complain, but Emma could tell that her back was bothering her. She moved gingerly, when standing. Dizzy, sometimes, and careful not to show it. Regina was private with her body, even with Emma, who shared her body with such frequency and enthusiasm. So Regina could wrap her legs around Emma's hips and fuck her like she'd never stop, like she had an unquenchable hunger to have Emma deeply, to grind their bodies together, to have their clits softly kissing, like Regina could not imagine being satisfied, no matter how much of Emma she got - so she could do all that, and she couldn't tell Emma that she had a backache.

Emma rubbed her back, at night, when she remembered. It often involved effort, because Regina rarely turned her body away from Emma. Regina preferred to have her arms around Emma, Emma's head securely held to her chest. She held Emma tightly, but carefully, alert to the slightest indication that Emma might pull away.

Emma wanted desperately for Regina to be happy. That was what was wrong. That was why Regina had rejected the proposal, why she had looked with such eyes at Emma last night. What could Emma do? Could she buy something for Regina, something that would make Regina glow? What on earth could Regina want, Regina, who only wanted… who only wanted Emma?

Emma had released the ring in her sleep, and when she went rooting in the bed to find it, Regina stirred into wakefulness. Emma pounced on her immediately, peppering her face with kisses, and Regina grumpily tried to protect herself. “Your breath, Emma,” she said, and Emma laughed at her and moved down her body, a million kisses for her neck and shoulders, a thousand for each perfect breast, one for Marie, and a trail of kisses down each leg to Regina's ankles. Emma took one foot in her hand and rubbed it, and Regina gave her a very small smile, like she would cry, and got out of bed.

Emma growled in disappointment and curled into a ball on Regina's side of the bed until she was back from the bathroom. “Hey, Gina,” Emma said when Regina went to the closet instead of coming back to bed. “It's six am. Come back here.”

“I don't think so,” Regina said, not taking Emma's bait. Her name wasn't _Gina,_ but Emma liked to shorten her name anyway. It was not very queenly, but sometimes Regina was not queenly.

Emma watched her pick out a dress and then followed her into the shower, lathering Regina's body with soap, letting Regina put her hands on Emma's hips and up to her rib cage, like that curve was the beginning and the end of everything. And then Regina dressed and left the house before seven, trusting Emma to drive Henry to school.

* * *

“Hey, kid,” Emma murmured. “Ready for the most important operation yet?”

Henry just rolled over in bed. The room smelled like unwashed man. The ten year old boy who had showed up at Emma's doorstep was long gone, leaving in his place this man-boy that smelled… just truly terrible.

Emma opened the window and continued working on him. Eventually he actually opened his eyes. His cheeks were flushed, and eyes bleary. “Jesus, Henry, and I think you look bad at 6:45,” Emma told him.

“What time…?” Henry mumbled, and he looked at the clock. Just after nine.

“I’m keeping you out of school. And taking the day off. Come on, there's too much to do.”

Henry processed this slowly, and then, finally, the inevitable, “Get out, Emma, I'm awake!”

Emma snorted at him and got off the bed. “I'm already gone.”

Before she reached the door, Henry said, “But is there something wrong? What's happening?”

“There is. Your mom’s not happy. We are gonna do something about it.”

Emma had already set the coffee cups on the kitchen table when Henry emerged from his shower and stumbled down the stairs. She pushed the stack of papers away and leaned over her cup conspiratorially. “We are beginning a new operation. Everyone knows the most important part of a mission is its name.” Henry nodded suspiciously. “So what do you think?”

Henry considered it. “Operation… Blue Jay?” He shook his head. “Ground Squirrel?”

“What about… Operation Monarch?”

“Yes,” Henry said instantly, hissing the end of the word. He was suddenly back to Regina's little boy, and Emma grinned happily at him.

“All right. You're my most valuable asset, Henry. What do you know?”

Henry looked at his coffee, and then took a small sip. It was sickly sweet, like a massive dessert for breakfast. Emma had another sip of her own black coffee. It was her third cup today. Regina would already be having the worst day, three hours in and probably planning to work straight through till six that night. With no coffee. Emma did not envy Belle.

Belle was in the wish realm, actually. Meeting Balefire, and probably wondering whether this “Rumple” would do for her. Regina would open the portal tomorrow, and they'd see if Belle planned to return to Public Works. No wonder Regina had been in such a hurry to leave the house. Emma felt a hint of guilt - she hadn't asked what Regina would be up to today. Maybe she could help Regina. Maybe Regina needed help?

Emma grabbed a piece of paper and wrote “Secretary?” on it, at the bottom of a long list. Then she turned back to Henry, who was looking at her.

“First I need to know what you know,” Henry said, raising one eyebrow and biting his lip.

“Right,” Emma agreed. “Two months ago you told me to go to the ultrasound, and tell my parents. And you told me to be more like Robin Hood.” She tried a small smile on Henry. “You know, in Hades, she saw Robin off. Do you know what he said to her?”

Henry shook his head slowly.

“He said, 'I'm sorry I couldn't make you happy.’ At first I thought it was a cruel joke, because of course she was happy with him. But it seems like I can't make her happy, either. So there you go.”

“You don't get anything,” Henry informed her, taking a gulp. “ _Anything,_ ” he emphasized. “How was she supposed to love Robin when she was already in love with you? She tried, but, like… do you know he never spent the night in her bed? I don't even know if they ever, you know…”

Emma shuddered, rubbing her face with her hand. “I hope not,” she managed.

“I thought it was just the curse breaking, when you first came to town. But after she turned off the portal spell, the one you and Gold had set for Cora, remember? When you came through, you know, she was so tired, and she looked at you like… like…”

“I remember,” Emma mumbled. “I remember how she looked at me.”

“She was different before that, too.”

Emma remembered before the first curse broke. The young Henry had seen something between them. Maybe he couldn't quite identify what it was. For Henry it had been the growing suspicion of _love,_ Regina learning to feel something other than hatred and bitterness, a slow, great fading. But for Emma - Emma had drowned in Regina's crackling fury. Nothing could feel bigger than Regina’s anger. Regina had sucked Emma into a maelstrom of brimstone, a world all their own. Each glance was its own confrontation. There was no greater magic that Regina had ever wrought than the spell she'd wrapped Emma in, the morning that Emma had told Regina her birthday wish.

And here they were, with a Regina somehow, painstakingly tamed. This Regina felt something other than the constant fury, the hell that Emma had experienced with her before the curse broke. But the emotion that replaced it was not less dire. It was not happiness. It was regret, and… Regina was still desperately sad. Emma had not managed to give Regina the happiness that Emma felt.

“That's when she accepted that she _could_ be a good guy,” Henry continued. “And that she wanted to be, for us.”

“Yeah,” Emma said quietly. “I proposed to her yesterday.”

Henry's eyebrows shot up. _“What?”_

“It was Mary Margaret's idea,” Emma told him. “Snow’s.” She took the ring out of the small pocket in her jeans, needing to stand slightly up to do it. “Last night she told me no.”

Henry was speechless. He looked at the ring, eyes wide.

“Yep,” Emma sighed. “So. What's our next move?” She sorted through her stack of papers and showed him a sketch. “How's this to start?”

* * *

Emma couldn't hear the key in the door, but Henry was her lookout and he yelled up at her from downstairs. Emma turned off the music as she bounded down the stairs to meet Regina at the door.

There were bags under Regina's eyes, and she allowed Emma to take her purse and her jacket. It wasn't the weather for a jacket; it was still the middle of August; but the town hall’s air conditioning was always set to high, and nowhere was colder than Regina's office. Regina took in Emma's clothing slowly, paint-splattered and ratty, and Emma held her own hands together behind her back and leaned in for a kiss.

Regina gave it to her, starting to frown. “Home early?” she asked Emma, like this was Emma's home, a small slip.

Emma grinned. “Kind of,” she said, and nodded to Henry toward the stairs. “Come on, we've got something to show you.”

Regina allowed them to lead her up the spiral staircase to the guest room. “It's not finished,” Emma admitted, as if that wasn't already clear. The floor was still covered in plastic, and the blue painter's tape still bedecked the windows and trimming. “But you get the idea.”

Henry and she had agreed upon green for the room, obviously. They'd liberated Mary Margaret of her baby infrastructure, as she no longer needed it - Neal was sleeping in Emma's bed when they arrived, which made sense even though it felt strange - and the furniture dotted Regina's guest room, the crib that was probably too big for an infant, the toy chest, a small bookcase filled over brimming.

“This alright?” Emma asked when Regina's silence was too long.

“Yes,” Regina said finally, but she turned away from their expectant eyes.

Emma stepped up to her back, putting her hands on Regina's arms to rub them. “Hey,” she murmured, and Henry beat a hasty retreat. “I was thinking that I don't say it enough.” _Ever._ “I love you.”

Regina didn't move for a long time. When she turned to Emma, her eyes were red. She buried her face in Emma's shoulder and held her, and Emma kissed her head and thought maybe. Maybe she had a chance to get this right.


	26. Chapter 26

Emma has forgotten something terribly important, _again._ The worst of forgetting is that you can't remember what it is that you've forgotten. Mental magic. Deception and obfuscation.

Paranoid schizophrenia. Right. That's the thing. She took the pills offered to her, downing them like an old pro. Wasn't Henry going to visit?

Seven minutes later she's back in her cell. Room. Each crook and cranny is familiar. Especially the hole in the wall, covered by a loose tile. She scrabbles to remove the tile and then throws up the foul-tasting pills and packs them in with the rest, a secondary layer of cement over the first.

This is it. The day of her escape. She spits more, onto her sheets, and then she paces, circles around the cell, over and over and over.

When the guard passes by, she's foaming on the ground. He opens the door, speaking into his radio, and she thrashes convincingly. There is an exit door on the way to the medical ward, and she flings an arm out and catches the guard in a tight Charleston Choke.

He goes limp and she's flying through the door, loose sweats and a white shirt, running across the grounds. There's an electric fence but she's taken the guard’s club and she pries the fence away from one of the poles, and then she's on the streets. Four turns and she's on Mifflin Street. There's a haunted house on the street, and that's home. She prowls the dark rooms, looking for something. Looking for some _one._

She doesn't find her. Instead she finds a nursery, picturesque even though it's covered in cobwebs. Where is her family? Where's Henry, and… her wife? The woman is nearly indistinct in her memory, but the feeling is there and Emma knows, she _knows…_

She knows that she won't go back to the ward. She opens a drawer and finds the gun. She checks the cartridges and changes out of the sweats, into some tight jeans that fit her perfectly, and a hoodie that feels good on her. A red jacket in the closet catches her eye and she puts that on, too. The gun goes in the back of her pants, safety on, and then she's out again in the sunlight, prowling the streets. Her head is spinning, maybe from the thrill of escape, but it feels _bad,_ really bad, like she's going to pass out. The only thing you can do when that happens is keep going, so Emma’s going, ignoring the spinning.

She spins into Granny's and there's a woman in a pixie cut that looks familiar, sitting in a booth. She's leather-bedecked and harsh, and Emma takes the seat across from her and pins her in a stare.

“You've escaped again,” the woman says to Emma without looking.

“I've got to find her. Where is she?”

“Who, Emma?” The woman puts her hand down on the table, splayed out, as if it's a threat. “I don't turn you in, the mayor has my head on a pike.”

“The _mayor._ ” Emma thinks hard. “No. Our queen. Where is _she?”_

“There's no queen,” M&M says. “You're off your meds. Go back to the sanitorium before you get yourself into more trouble.”

Then Emma's on her feet, spinning, to look at the rest of the patrons. They've all got their eyes on her, like they know her, like she's crazy.

She pulls out the gun and points it at everyone and no-one. “Where's my wife?” she yells, and there's an answering silence in the diner. So she puts the gun against M&M’s forehead. “I know you know who. If you don't tell me where she is, you're going to have a hole in your skull in three. Two.”

M&M opens her mouth, and Emma pulls the gun away slightly, waiting.

“You're talking about my whore,” the woman says, after a long pause. “She's finally having that baby and then she’ll be back working, thank god. Or thank the mayor, who's letting her into the hospital even though she can't pay the fee.”

 _“Fuck you, Mary Margaret.”_ Emma is tempted to shoot her anyway, the pimp who ruined everything. “I'll be back for you.” Emma puts the gun back in her pants and runs to the door, yanking it open. It's a few long blocks to the hospital, and Emma runs them all. Halfway, she takes back out the gun, flipping on and off the safety. She's glad she didn't shoot M &M, because she's going to need the bullet.

There's a back entrance to the hospital and there she finds a man standing, looking at the door with the oddest expression. He has blue eyes and blond hair, and he's tall, in a black jacket. The clothing doesn't make him look any less innocent.

But he's not innocent, not really. He grunts at her, and she pauses there with him, looking at him sidelong. He must be her age, but…

“You coming, kid?” she asks him finally, and he grunts and nods. “What do you know?”

He just shakes his head, eyes swimming in tears. She reaches out and squeezes his hand tightly.

“It's all right,” she tells him. “Thanks for helping.”

They open the door together, and emergency alarm immediately begins blaring. The lights of the hospital dim, so that there's only the red spinning lights and the muffled siren.

Emma knows where the maternity ward is, and she makes a beeline for it. When she gets there it's just bodies, stacked up, a morgue instead.

The blond man takes her hand, though, and she follows him down narrow, claustrophobic corridors.

And then she's there, in front of an unmarked door, and a woman in a black pantsuit is standing there, too. Emma doesn't know her face, but she's got black hair and wears the suit like a pro.

“Neal,” the woman says, and the man shrinks away from her like she's made of fire instead of flesh.

“We're here for my wife,” Emma says to her. “Get the fuck out of our way.”

“You're sure you're not here for _me?”_ Her voice is syrupy, with a lilt that Emma can't place.

Emma raises the gun, and it's flying out of her hands.

The woman examines it with interest, and then Neal is walking, with leaden steps, and Emma grabs his arm. “I've got this, kid,” she says. “Go get…” she blanks, but he nods like he knows what she wants to say.

The woman circles slightly, ignoring Neal. The gun is gone, and Emma didn't see where it went but she bets it's gone-gone, as in, melted and disappeared, like Emma imagines this woman will try to do to her. “I didn't think you would make it here so quickly, but I'm glad you have. This is your Final Battle, after all. It wouldn't have been right for that poison to have killed you. It should be more direct.”

And her hands are on Emma's face, like she's going to kiss Emma, and then wrapping her hand around Emma's neck in a caress that turns tight and brutal.

Emma puts her arms up, too, twisting, struggling against the woman's grip, but she is way too strong. Black smoke billows from her hands, and it's met by white light, by _magic._ From Emma. Emma's got magic?

The realization of it makes the magic gush from her pores, and the woman stumbles back in surprise. It's enough that Emma can sidestep her and follow Neal through the door she was guarding.

There's a woman there, who meets Emma's eyes in the darkness. “Regina,” Emma says, and that's right, that's her name. “Hold the door, Neal,” she says quickly, and then she's at the bedside.

She brushes sweaty hair out of Regina's face and kisses her forehead, and there's a blast of energy, straight from the place Emma's kissed her, a blast through the town. True Love’s kiss. It all floods back, Regina going into labor, and then the Dark Curse in billowing smoke, enveloping the town like it was waiting for that first contraction. Their… fifth curse? Jesus.

Emma can remember far enough back to know that it's been a really fucking long time, too long, that Regina's been alone with the Black Fairy, that she's been in labor without Emma, trapped in this gutterpunk hell world. Had Regina almost remembered, too? Where was Henry?

Then the door’s opening and Emma faces it, faces the Black Fairy. She tells Regina, “See, told you I'd be here.” She flashes a smile at Regina, and Regina grabs her hand. Their magic crackles together, white and purple, and Neal tackles the Black Fairy from where he was standing, behind the door.

Neal is getting choked on the ground, and his magic isn't enough to protect him, not against this, not against _her._ That's because it's not his fight. It's Emma's.

But Regina doesn't let Emma's hand go. She squeezes Emma's hand tightly, like she knows Emma plans to let her go and take Neal's place, instead of fighting with Regina.

Or maybe it's the squeeze of a woman in labor, because Regina's face isn't even conscious of the Black Fairy at all, or really even conscious of anything except maybe Emma, that Emma's there, that she's got her hand. Emma has no idea what to do. Neal is going to die. Regina is squeezing Emma's hand like she plans to liquify her bones shortly, and then Regina is back, and her magic is meeting Emma's, and they blast together at the horrible shell of a woman that's killing Neal.

The Black Fairy is dislodged from Neal, thrown against the nearest wall. And Neal gets onto his knees, coughing, and he's got a knife in his hand that's going to go straight into the Black Fairy's heart if Emma doesn't do something _right now._

“Stop, Neal,” Emma says quickly, and she twists her hand away from Regina's.

“Emma,” Regina says, but Emma's already four steps away and grabbing the knife from her little brother. The Black Fairy is back on her feet, and in the same step Emma has the hilt of the dagger against her chest, the blade through the fairy’s chest and stuck in the wood behind her.

The Black Fairy laughs at Emma. “You think a mundane dagger can kill me? Of all your instruments, only Excalibur has that power. And it is far, far from here. I made sure of that much.”

“We’ll find it,” Emma tells her, and she stabs the Black Fairy again. There's blood all over them, soaking the Black Fairy’s white shirt, and Emma’s red jacket. She slits the Fairy’s neck next, and none of it matters, her skin heals as soon as the knife is through it. “Get away from us. We are together, and you can't beat us together.” Blue said so. That was the point of all the bullshit so far, right? To keep them apart?

Regina's seven steps away in that bed and Emma's here. Straight into the dragon’s maw.

“You can't take Marie. You won't. I will not let you.” The Black Fairy laughs at Emma, but there's a hesitation in her eyes. “You know how I know I can stop you? Because you never tried to kill me. If this is my Final Battle, you didn't want to be in it. First you tried to trap me in time. And then you tried to keep me away by locking me in a crazy house. Why didn't you just take my heart? You know why? Because you can't. You can't kill me.”

“I most certainly can,” the Black Fairy says, and in fact, she reaches into Emma's chest and takes her heart out, like it was nothing. She squeezes it threateningly, and Regina's crying out, a matching pain to the pain that has driven Emma to her knees. Nobody's ever gotten Emma's heart out of her chest like this before, and Emma is shocked at how awful it feels, like every nerve is aflame. As bad as falling in the lava in Hades's nightmare. Worse.

But the fairy doesn't command Emma. Her eyes are on Regina, and Emma follows the look.

Neal’s hands catch the baby as she’s born, and as quickly hands the baby to Regina. The Black Fairy disappears, but Emma is right there, taking the three steps to stand there, between the fairy and Regina when she reappears.

And then Emma's reaching into the Black Fairy's chest, withdrawing the blackest heart she's ever seen. She squeezes it like she's seen Regina do, and the Black Fairy squeezes her heart back, and Emma's certain that she can't break this heart faster than the fairy can break hers.

She looks back at Regina and Marie, and Regina is crying, and Emma's crying, and she wishes she could say everything in her heart, even though she already has. She got three months that she hadn't really had at all, three months extra, and she is glad that she spent those three months like she had, giving Regina the life she deserved, giving her everything.

And now it’s time.

“You can't beat me,” Emma tells the Black Fairy, even though she knows what is going to happen. She tries anyway. “Go home and leave us alone.”

The Black Fairy laughs, and Emma watches as her own heart falls into dust in the fairy’s hand. She gives the heart in her hand everything she's got, and as the life fades from her own eyes she feels the heart break like it's glass in her hand, and then she's gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry


	27. Chapter 27

Regina's voice was stiff on the other side of the door, and Henry tuned in instantly to the sound, as he knew Marie would learn to do. That was an important sound to listen to.

“I do not have a husband. My _wife_ has passed.”

There was a brief silence, like the person on the receiving end of that was surprised. Then a man. “Terribly sorry to hear that. My sympathies to you, and the little one.”

Henry looked at his new roommate, hesitation flooding him. The guy was looking back at him, and of course he'd heard the exchange too. Lesbian parents. Couldn't be worse than the mayor's son, but Henry might have had a chance to keep it from his new roommate in Seattle, unlike in Storybrooke.

Patrick grinned at Henry. “That's _cool,”_ he said. “Having two moms. I basically had zero, after… well, I'll tell you later,” he said as his dad reentered the room.

Henry looked up at Regina, who was hovering in the doorway, Marie on her hip.

“Cool,” Henry said. “I’m all unpacked, so I guess we’ll give you some space and come back tonight.”

“All right,” Patrick said, and Henry nodded his head at Patrick's dad. Regina turned on her heel and marched with Henry down the hallway, dodging furniture, teenagers, and red-eyed parents. Henry could practically feel Regina bristling at the chaos.

When they got to the stairs Henry took Marie from Regina. Marie said, “I'm hungry,” with the brightest smile for Henry.

“Me, too,” Henry said decisively, matching Marie's tone as well as he could. “Mom, are we gonna go out or order in?” Regina had made a hotel reservation in the heart of Seattle when Henry accepted admission at the University of Washington six months ago, but hadn't yet checked in at the hotel today. They had, however, visited the campus and the surrounding metropolis on three separate occasions during the preceding summer. Regina scoped it out like it was a war zone, and today was no different than the other visits in that respect.

Regina was navigating the stairs and didn't answer Henry's question immediately. Of course it would be stressful to take Marie out to lunch/dinner. Marie was worse in restaurants than she was at home, which was saying something. But they did need to eat.

Marie only ate spaghetti and bread without protest at this point. And the crackers that Regina had already shared at mid-morning, which Henry knew would therefore not make an appearance until tomorrow. _Man cannot live on crackers alone,_ she always told Marie, which of course went over Marie’s head, and probably Henry's, too. Henry was certain that he had never been so picky as a baby, or as headstrong, although Regina disagreed.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Regina said, “I understand there is a cafeteria. Perhaps it is open today.”

“Probably,” Henry said. “The food’s supposed to suck. Are you sure you want to…”

“I do,” Regina said, and looked like she might try to hug him again, or cry, or both. “I want to know exactly what my - my little prince will be enduring this year.” Yep, there was the waver in her voice.

“It's not gonna be that bad,” Henry said as he rooted in his pocket with his left hand for the map they’d given him when he checked in.

Marie pounded on his chest with one fist and repeated, “Bad! Bad! Bad!” like a shrill little parrot.

Rather than being annoyed, Henry rubbed their noses together as Regina took a deep breath and said, “I have already _seen_ rat droppings. You're moving _in, and there are rat droppings.”_

“Everyone knows you have to experience the dorms for at least one year to have the real college experience,” Henry retorted cheerfully. And then he remembered the conversation he'd overheard. Regina had never once called Emma her wife, not that Henry had ever known. Things must have been dire for Regina to resort to that, even though it was the simplest explanation of their relationship, really. Even though they had dated for just a few short months, they'd raised Henry together for years, and… they'd been through a lot of truly awful stuff, and they'd still managed to figure things out.

Mary Margaret had told Henry that Emma called Regina her wife, the day of the last curse. The Black Fairy had easily captured Henry and tied him up, neutralizing him as a threat. The Truest Believer couldn't be allowed to disrupt her plan. But Emma had remembered without Henry's help. She'd dodged the poison at the asylum and went directly to Mary Margaret, acting like the curse’s memories hadn't fully formed in her mind, although she couldn't remember Regina's name and her hands had been shaking, shaking, which she'd not even seemed to notice.

“Did Patrick's dad - what happened? Do you want to talk, Mom?” He oriented the map and then led her through the double doors to a winding pathway that took them through a small grove of trees. Henry kept his eyes on Regina as she took in the unfamiliar scenery. Probably the Pacific Northwest trees looked different to her, and weirdly Regina was always tuned into those things. Her years here hadn't erased those in the Enchanted Forest, apparently.

Finally she turned back to him. “It is not your concern. I'm sure that Patrick will be - will be an excellent roommate, regardless of his father's lechery.”

Henry frowned in frustration. “Did he like, come on to you?” That would explain it.

Regina didn't respond, because they were finally at the cafeteria. Henry held Marie and served himself from the buffet, and Regina followed in his wake with two plates to keep the spaghetti sauce from touching her salad.

When they were all situated in a far corner of the overbrimming dining hall, though, Marie was dejected and refused to eat. They begged her, and Regina even ate more than the one small taste she usually did, to check that the spaghetti was eatable. To check for poison, maybe, probably, as if someone in the world would want to poison her three-coming-on-four-year-old daughter at this point.

“What's going on, Mare?” Henry whispered in her ear. The action, which usually provoked a ticklish shriek from his sister, barely got her to look at him.

“Emma,” Marie said, clearly. “Miss Emma.”

Henry snuck a quick look at Regina, whose face was frozen, and picked Marie directly up, putting her on his lap even though it clearly wasn't proper at the table. He cradled her head and stroked her platinum white hair, slightly curling. “It's all right,” he told her. “You'll be back in Storybrooke tomorrow. It's just one night.”

Marie looked up at him and her face was the image of destitution, the frown nearly a parody with the way it overtook each feature. “Why she's gone?”

“Why is she gone?” Henry corrected gently without thinking, like Regina always had corrected him. “You know why, Marie. We're not in Storybrooke, and Emma's only there in Storybrooke. Remember?” Emma appeared to Marie as Rumplestiltskin had appeared to Emma, the shadow of Emma's soul, imprinted as the very first Dark and Light One before Marie had been conceived.

Marie nodded and threw her head against Henry's chest. “Come on,” Henry said to her. “The spaghetti is really, _really_ good, I promise.”

But Marie wouldn't eat, and finally they gave up and took the food to go. They got Regina's suitcase from Henry's room, and he took the Uber with them to the hotel to spend the evening doing puzzles and drawing with Marie, while Regina bustled and did paperwork, until Henry convinced Marie that the last part of the puzzle they were on was impossible without Regina's assistance.

Marie marched to Regina's knee, which was bouncing, and told her as much, and Regina followed Marie to the table and provided her invaluable assistance, until Henry's return Uber had already arrived and they were saying goodbye. Regina's flight back to Logan International Airport was early the next morning, by design.

Sitting in the Uber, Henry imagined Regina and Marie flying away. Regina would put Marie’s seat belt on her, and Marie would sit upright, proud, her shoulders back and chest poofed out. Halfway through the flight Marie would be curled back up in Regina's arms, a blond, blue-eyed ball of sleepiness and warmth, as she had done with Henry in the way here. They'd be all right.


End file.
